


Let this be our little secret

by Lollea



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anne and Gil are keeping their relationship a secret, Dellie knows their secret, F/M, Mary is alive!, Secret Relationship, Shirbert, so is Bash, their friends are obsessed with shirbert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24022903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lollea/pseuds/Lollea
Summary: Anne and Gilbert were academic rivals turned friends with not-so-subtle crushes on each other. One night they became more, but decided to keep their romantic relationship a secret until they figured everything out.Turns out, they enjoy being a secret item. But what will happen if their friends and families find out the truth about them?
Relationships: Delphine Lacroix & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe & Delphine Lacroix, Gilbert Blythe & Sebastian "Bash" Lacroix, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Jerry Baynard & Anne Shirley, Mary Lacroix/Sebastian ''Bash'' Lacroix, Ruby Gillis/Moody Spurgeon MacPherson
Comments: 121
Kudos: 248





	1. Two months

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'm new and obviously not used to this. Please be nice, I've never written fanfiction before but this fandom seems kind and social distancing is very boring. I had this idea, i hope you enjoy it. :)

Two months. Two months had passed since the drunken February night where Anne had told Gilbert how she really felt about him on their walk back to his place from Tillie's 18th birthday party. It started with Gilbert mumbling about what a good friend Anne was for rubbing his back while he was throwing up in the bushes of a park they walked by, after which Anne started hysterically crying about how she didn’t want them to be _just_ friends, and ended with them kissing on Gilbert’s bed and falling asleep in each others arms.

This is what Gilbert was dreaming about with a small smile on his face when the alarm on his phone went off, early a Tuesday morning in April. With a sigh he reached towards the nightstand full of books and turned it off before looking down to the redhead sleeping on his right bicep. He had never been this happy in his entire life. Carefully he kissed her bare shoulder before he shook her awake.

“Happy two month-anniversary, Anne-girl” he whispered in a sleepy voice when she turned towards him and buried her face in his chest.

“Five more minutes” she groaned and hugged him around his waist. Gilbert knew he should have said something about how they need to get ready for school, but decided to lay there with her, his Anne with an E, for just a couple more minutes.

30 minutes later Gilbert was getting yelled at.

“How could you let me fall back asleep, you knew I needed to go over my notes for my biology test today” Anne cried while setting the breakfast table.

“I’m sorry, you just look so cute in the mornings. You know I can’t say no to you” he whispered back so that Marilla wouldn’t hear them from the kitchen.

This was a regular occurring thing, Gilbert staying the night at Anne’s and getting yelled at in the mornings. It was his favourite part of the day. Since they had been best friends for almost five years before they had gotten together, he already knew that Anne definitely was not a morning person. They had had enough sleepovers over the years to know the other’s morning and night routines and for Gilbert to be aware that whatever did not go according to Anne’s plan could be blamed on him. The only difference now was that Anne would kiss him after yelling at him, instead of apologising with words, which to her was perfect.

However, all kissing had to be done in private. She couldn’t risk Matthew or Marilla seeing them like that, or anyone else for that matter. No one knew that they were together. It was Anne’s idea, after she had drunkenly expressed her love for Gilbert that day two months ago, and fallen asleep in his arms after he told her he felt the same way, she had suggested keeping it a secret. They knew that their friends thought they were perfect for each other. By telling them what had happened Anne and Gilbert would not only be pressured by themselves to make the relationship work, but also their friends.

Anne had told Gilbert, when he woke up the morning after, that she wanted to keep whatever it was between them to themselves until they figured everything out. Gilbert disagreed at first, because despite that they had been friends since they were 13 and 14 years old, there was still a rivalry between them and he felt the need to argue against her. However, it only took him 15 minutes to change his mind considering they were met by Bash’s teasing when they left the room to go downstairs and make breakfast, and he did not even know that something had happened.

It turned out that Anne and Gilbert actually enjoyed keeping their relationship secret from their friends and families. Whenever they were with their friend group they acted like nothing had changed, like they were still _just_ best friends who competed for the top place in the classes they shared. If they wanted to be alone, like they wanted to be the night before their two month anniversary, they told their friends that they were studying together. None of their friends would want to hang out with them if they were arguing about whatever school related thing Anne was most passionate about at the time that Gilbert _had_ to disagree with. It wasn’t always a lie, they often spent some of their alone time studying. No one needed to know what else they were doing.

It was more difficult to keep the secret from their families, but since they used to hang out a lot and stay the night at each other’s houses before anything happened their family members didn’t notice a huge difference. Matthew and Marilla loved having Gilbert over, they had been neighbours with him and his father since before Anne was adopted as a ten year old, eight years ago, and thought it was good the two were getting along after (according to Anne) being enemies for the first three years they knew each other. Gilbert loved the Cuthberts and was thankful for how they helped him when his father passed away five years ago, just before his 14th birthday.

Bash, who had moved in with Gilbert after his dad died, had his suspicions about the two. Gilbert seemed happier and didn’t gush about Anne to him as often, which he thought ment that Gilbert finally was finally complimenting her directly (he is). It wasn’t weird for Anne to spend the night in Gilbert’s room or the other way around, they had done it a thousand times as friends. Nobody needed to know that the two lovebirds went from watching Netflix until 3 am and falling asleep with a pillow wall between them during sleepovers to using Netflix as a way to make their own noises less audible and falling asleep in each other’s arms with minimal clothes on.

They had almost been caught once, at Gilbert’s place two weeks ago, when Gilbert’s three year old niece had walked into his room one night after having a nightmare. Dellie hadn’t seen anything _too scandalous_ , but it was a close call. Luckily she didn’t understand what was happening and gladly accepted Anne’s invite to sleep between her and Gilbert so that they could protect her from the monsters she had dreamt of. Gilbert laughed of embarrassment but fell asleep with a big smile on his face, sleeping in the same bed as his two favourite people.

After breakfast at the Cuthberts’, Anne and Gilbert walked across the driveway of Green Gables over to the Blythe-Lacroix house and got into Gilbert’s car. Anne mumbled an “I’m sorry” from the passengers seat and leaned over to kiss Gilbert’s cheek before grabbing her notebook from her backpack and starting going over her notes. Gilbert gave her a small smile before shaking his head and started driving towards their highschool.

Gilbert helped Anne with her last-minute studying on their 30 minute drive to school by quizzing her on the different parts of the cell. They arrived in what felt like no time and walked in together, just like any neighbours who took the same care to be environmentally friendly. They usually carpooled with their other neighbour, Jerry, too so Diana didn’t think twice about it when she saw them. She walked up to them, said a quick “hello” to Gilbert and took Anne’s arm to drag her to their biology class, stressing about the test.

Jerry and Diana had been Anne’s first friends when she came to Avonlea. She had met Jerry, who lived with his large family in a small house down the street from Green Gables, the very first afternoon she arrived. He was a year younger than her, but was brave enough to knock on the side door of her new house to ask if she wanted to play football* with him and his siblings. They almost immediately formed a sibling bond, something Anne had never had before but Jerry was an expert at.

Anne met Diana the following weekend at a town event, where the Cuthberts introduced her to the Barry family. Diana was shy at first, but they hit it off and she took Anne under her wing when school started. Diana’s other friends weren’t as welcoming to Anne, especially not after she slapped Ruby’s crush (who she later found out was her neighbour) with a book after he had called her carrots. It took a lot of time for Anne to get them to warm up to her. Now, eight years later, they were all friends.

Anne looked over her shoulder to a smiling Gilbert, who was used to Diana stealing Anne. She smiled back when she saw him mouthing “good luck” before turning to Diana and calming her nerves.

Gilbert walked to his locker to retrieve his books before going to his honours math class, one of the few classes he didn’t share with Anne, and sat down at his regular seat. Being the nerd he is, he decided to study before the lesson began. Charlie and Jane arrived two minutes later and sat down next to him.

With the exception for Anne, Charlie and Moody were the only ones who were actually there for him when his dad passed away. While Gilbert always turned to Anne for comfort, he turned to Charlie and Moody for distraction. They were fun and distracted him with videogames and stupid ideas, not pressuring him to open up but letting him know that they were there for him if he needed them.

Jane was relatively new in their friend group. She used to be close friends with the girls, Josie, Tillie, Diana, Anne and Ruby, so she had always been around. However, when she came out two years ago she started hanging out with the boys more. She explained it as being more comfortable talking about the girls she liked with other people who were attracted to girls, but Gilbert suspected that wasn’t the whole truth.

They were still friends with the girl-group and used to hang out in a larger group with them, the Pauls and Jerry, but Jane didn’t really spend any alone time with the girls. Moody loved the change, for the past two years Jane had taught him how to talk to girls and as a result he and Ruby had been dating for six months. Charlie and Gilbert also enjoyed that their trio had become a quartet. Jane shared Charlie’s teasing humour and Gilbert's intellect (not that she would admit that or work as hard as him just to get the, in reality, meaningless first place in class).

Jane was just about to ask Gilbert about their coming assignment about geometry when Charlie noticed something. “Dude, what happened to your neck?” He exclaimed for everyone in the classroom to hear.

Jane started laughing, “is that a hickey, Blythe?” she asked with a grin after calming down.

Gilbert looked up from his homework, the top of his ears red from embarrassment of being caught, and gave them a panicked look. He was trying to come up with a believable lie that would get him out of the awkward situation his friends had put him in. ‘ _No, Anne burnt me with a hair straightener when she tried to straighten my hair last night_ ’, he thought. _No, better not mention that I spent the night with Anne_. ‘ _Dellie must have gotten paint on me this morning_ ’, _no, that’s stupid_. ‘ _I was bitten by a snake on my way to school_ ’, _okay, not even Charlie would fall for that one_.

Luck was on Gilbert's side, the teacher started the lesson just then. He looked over at his friends and shrugged, feeling relieved to have more time to figure out a believable lie.


	2. Disgustingly in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gil get teased by their friends and celebrate their anniversary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the nice feedback I got on the last chapter, I definitely wasn't expecting that. You are all so kind and made me very happy. <33
> 
> I was planning on posting this chapter on Saturday, but I have no self control. There's a lot of dialog, i hope you enjoy it :)

Wearing the hood of his green hoodie, Gilbert practically ran out of the classroom when their teacher dismissed them to avoid questions from his two nosy friends. He rushed to his locker, hoping that he had left a shirt that covered more of his neck than his current one in there and cursed silently when he didn’t. He realised that Anne really was smarter than him. Gilbert used to tease her for the turtleneck collection she had in her closet, but now he realised that she is actually a genius. 

He headed straight to his next class, French, and hoped that no one else would notice the mark on his lower neck if he kept the hood on for the rest of the day. Thankfully, he didn’t have any more classes with Charlie or Jane until after lunch and maybe they would have forgotten about it at that point? 

Gilbert saw Anne and Ruby sitting in their usual seats with Moody behind them, who was passionately discussing the correct pronunciation of “croissant” with Anne. He sat down next to Moody and laughed at how invested they both were in the discussion before sending Ruby a smile. He received a weird look in return.

“Are you cosplaying Green Arrow from season one or something?” she asked and pointed to his hood teasingly. 

“Nah, just a bad hair day” Gilbert lied with a laugh at how Moody had finally must have gotten her to watch the show with him. 

“I’m pretty sure everyday is a bad hair day when your name is Gilbert Blythe” Moody laughed, discontinuing the conversation he had with Anne. 

“You’re just jealous the girls prefer my curls over that mop on your head” he answered cockily and shot Anne a look and a smirk to show that he was aware of how much she enjoyed running her fingers through it. She blushed and just shook her head with a smile. 

_‘He is such a nerd’_ she thought before directing her focus to Ruby, asking if she had tried the banana bread recipe they had talked about last week. 

  
  


At lunch that day, they by chance happened to end up at a large table in the cafeteria that fit all of their smaller friend groups. Anne loved to have a reason to have lunch with Gilbert, she had started suggesting that they all should have lunch together more often but she didn’t want to alert her friends. Everyone knew that Anne and Gilbert were close friends despite not being in the same smaller group, but she didn’t want her friends to think they were more than that. Yet. . 

The girls and Cole had joined the Pauls, upon Tillie’s request, and Moody, Jane, Charlie and Gilbert had later joined them. Jane sat down next to Anne and gave her a tight lipped smile, making Anne understand that it was Moody that had led them there and that she had no choice but to follow. 

Anne had always thought it was sad that Jane no longer hung out with them as much as she used to and felt guilty for not reaching out to her when she started hanging out with the boys instead. She knew that her friends should have handled Jane coming out to them better and felt responsible for not trying to fix their relationship. Soon after it all happened Cole had joined their group and Anne was afraid Jane felt like she had been replaced, even if it had been two years now.

“Looks like we got front row seats to see those two being disgustingly in love” Anne whispered to her and nodded towards Moody and Ruby, who were sitting right opposite them. She was trying to clear the obvious tension between them. 

“I feel bad for sitting here now, I don’t want to puke on you” Jane laughed, which cleared the awkwardness that had existed just five seconds earlier. 

“At least we are several people away from Tillie’s love triangle” Anne joked back which made Jane laugh even harder. 

“And I’m very thankful for that” she managed to answer in between laughs. 

“Careful, Andrews. I don’t want to see you choke on your food just because you have a bad sense of humour” Gilbert said to join the conversation, doing everything in his power to ignore the two lovebirds next to him. 

“Thanks, dad. Means a lot that you don’t want to see me die” Jane answered sarcastically and gave him an eye roll to prove her point. Anne laughed at that before taking a bite of her food and making eye contact with Gilbert, raising her eyebrows to show that she would love for him to continue. 

Just before Gilbert could reply with a snarky comment about how he would prefer to see that over the tonsil hockey game happening next to him, Diana stole everyone's attention. She loudly asked if anyone would want to meet up at the local café after school. Charlie immediately said that it sounded like a good idea, which Josie backed up. 

“I guess I’ll go, as long as I don’t need to look at those two” Jane said and pointed to Ruby and Moody, who were making googly eyes at each other. 

“Gil and I can't, we have plans to study” Anne said casually, trying not to sound excited about celebrating their two month anniversary. 

“Didn’t you guys study yesterday?” Cole asked suspiciously with a huge smile on his face, hoping that he had _finally_ caught them in a lie. 

“How much homework do you guys have?” Tillie giggled, understanding what Cole was suggesting. 

“We have homework?” Moody asked in a high, panicked voice, not at all following the meaning behind the other comments. 

“Yes? We were literally just assigned a shit load of french homework 20 minutes ago” Anne laughed, still not used to being friends with someone as kind but clueless as Moody. 

“We did study yesterday, so that we will have less to do today since we also have to babysit Delphine” Gilbert explained to the group so that they wouldn’t question it. He was proud of the lie, it seemed to shut everyone up, even though Cole still was side eyeing him. _Maybe he wasn’t as bad at lying as he thought he was? Maybe he could come up with a lie for Jane and Charlie too?_

  
  


They finished up lunch and started walking towards the lockers, getting ready for their upcoming lessons when Moody reminded them that his parents were going out of town over the weekend. He suggested that they all should have a party instead of the get-together he had planned with his core-four. Tillie, being the party-goer of the group, suggested that they should invite more people and throw a big party. 

“We haven’t had one since my birthday, it could be fun” she said and didn’t notice how Anne and Gilbert started blushing.

“No outside people, just our groups. My parents would kill me otherwise” Moody said sternly. Since he normally wasn’t the one to be serious, the whole group respected that and agreed. 

“Should I bring booze?” asked Paul M, afraid of overstepping. 

“Yeah, Diana will help you. Get enough for all of us” Moody said with a smile, back to his regular self. 

That was when Anne saw her chance, she grabbed Gilbert’s arm and dragged him sneakily around the corner from their friends. They continued in the opposite direction from where they were sure their friends were discussing why Diana was put on alcohol duty, until they reached their regular meet up spot during school hours. 

It was a small den in the corridor, just outside of a locked janitors closet (they had checked it multiple times, it was always locked). It didn’t provide total privacy, but it was better than standing in the middle of the hallway. 

Anne stood against the wall with Gilbert just opposite her. “So we’re babysitting tonight, huh?” she said with a flirtatious smile and reached to pull down his hood. 

“They bought it, didn’t they? You’re making me a pretty good liar, Shirley” Gilbert flirted back, one hand on her waist. 

“Don’t let this get to your ego, you told one believable lie. You’re still the worst liar I’ve ever met” she said teasingly, her hand in his hair. 

“If that’s the case I should probably blurt out to our friends that we have been _disgustingly_ in love with each other for two months now” he whispered, leaning down and pressing a quick peck on her lips. “We should go, they have probably noticed that the talkative Anne Shirley-Cuthbert hasn't spoken in awhile” he laughed and pulled her back in the direction they came from. 

“Two whole months” Anne said with a big smile, looking up at Gilbert. She took his hand, gave it a quick squeeze and let go of it again. He put on his hood and they turned around the corner to see their friends still arguing about who should help Paul with the drinks.

“Where were you?” Charlie whispered when Gilbert went back to standing next to him. 

“Just double checking our plans for tonight” he said, looking over at Anne who had immediately joined the conversation by defending Diana. 

  
  


When school ended Gilbert and Anne rushed out of the building to avoid questions from their friends about why they couldn’t join them at the café. They waited for Jerry at the car park, after Gilbert had gotten a text from him during the last period saying he needed a ride home. 

“The lovebirds waited for me, how sweet” Jerry teased when he arrived, ten minutes late, and got into the backseat. 

Even though Jerry didn’t officially know about Anne and Gilbert, he was not as stupid as people thought he was. He may have been a year younger than Anne and two years younger than Gilbert, but he did ride with them practically every day to and from school. Spending 30 minutes every morning and 30 minutes every afternoon with the two, he figured out they were romantically involved in some way or another. 

Anne had threatened to hurt him if he told anyone and Jerry had promised to keep their secret, in exchange for Anne no longer teasing him about his crush on Diana. It was a hard deal for Anne to accept, it was difficult for her to not tease Jerry, who she saw as her baby brother, when he kept drooling over her best friend. But nevertheless, she agreed. Gilbert didn’t mind that Jerry knew, he was just happy he didn’t need to be subtle when he stared at Anne whenever she would drive them. 

Gilbert got into the driverseat and asked Jerry about his dentist appointment that had made him unable to go with them to school. Anne interrupted him, “do you have time to help me with my french homework tomorrow? Pretty please with sugar on it” she asked, looking back at Jerry from the passenger seat pouting her lip. 

“I love it when you use me for my bilingual skills” he answered and looked back at Gilbert. “It was fine, no cavities. Thank _you_ for asking. What's with the hood?”. Anne rolled her eyes at them and spaced out when Gilbert gave the same “bad hair day” excuse she had heard at least five times since Ruby asked. 

The car ride was quiet, Jerry had put his headphones on and Anne had fallen asleep with her head against the window. She woke up when Gilbert stopped outside of Jerry’s house half an hour later. 

“By the way, Moody is having a small party on Friday. You should come, but no outsiders allowed” Anne said when Jerry unfastened his seat-belt. 

“Will-”

“Diana will be there, don’t worry” Gilbert laughed, already knowing what Jerry was going to ask. 

Jerry looked at Anne “I hate you both” he said and got out of the car. 

“I love you too, see you tomorrow” Anne yelled just before he slammed the car door shut. 

“So what’s the plan now?” Anne asked, back to her inside voice, and looked over to Gilbert. 

  
  


The car was barely parked on Gilbert's driveway when Delphine ran out of the house to meet the two teenagers. Anne got out of the car and was directly met with a three year olds arms wrapped around her legs. 

“I’ve missed you so much” Dellie said when Anne bent her knees to get to her eye level. 

“You just saw her two days ago” Gilbert laughed and walked around the car. Anne stuck her tongue out at him and looked back at the little girl “I missed you too”. The three walked together into the house and were met by the smell of Mary’s cooking. 

“Welcome home, you two. How come you were late? Dellie has been sitting by the window for the past 15 minutes waiting” Mary laughed and accepted Anne’s hug from behind. 

“Jerry’s fault, as usual” Anne laughed, still annoyed, after knowing him for eight years, at how Jerry had absolutely no concept of time. 

They sat down at the kitchen table, listening to one of Delphine’s stories from daycare while eating some of Mary’s famous scones. When Dellie finished her story, Mary asked them what their plans were for the afternoon, Gilbert started blushing. 

“We were thinking of going outside to study in the old orchard, maybe bring something to eat with us” Anne answered for him, sounding very casual once again. 

The apple orchard used to belong to John Blythe, Gilbert hadn’t had the energy to maintain it since his death but didn't have the heart to sell the land. A month ago Bash had suggested cutting the grass of the land that was just a three minute walk from their home, the last snow had just melted and maybe it would be nice for Delphine to run around there this coming summer. Gilbert had agreed to it, but still wouldn’t let anyone do anything with the apple trees. He liked that the last person who had taken care of them was his dad and wasn’t ready to change that just yet. 

When Anne suggested celebrating their two month anniversary with a picnic there, he couldn’t say no. It would be nice to create some new happy memories in his dad’s favourite place. 

“That sounds like fun. The weather has been great today, I know how much you love spring, Anne” Mary smiled. 

“Can I come? Pleeeaaase let me come” Dellie whined. 

“We were actually hoping to have some alone time today, princess” Gilbert answered, feeling bad for turning her down. 

“You can have alone time with me” Delphine suggested, not understanding why they would not want to play with her. _She was a delight, the highlight of their lives,_ afterall _._

“Delphine, we talked about this. Let uncle Gilby and auntie Anne have their alone time” Mary said, giving the two a very indicating look. Gilbert knew she had learnt that from her husband. “Besides, the three of you are spending time together on Saturday, after Gilby’s hockey game.” 

“Are you going to that, by the way?” Gilbert, who was still blushing, turned to ask Anne. 

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world” Anne smiled at him, before looking at Dellie “And you and I can hang out during the game”.

“I want to play with you now” Dellie said with a pout that made the three adults do everything in their power to hold in their laughter. 

  
  


Mary had distracted Delphine, while Anne and Gilbert packed a picnic basket, a blanket and a couple books as cover. They walked hand in hand towards the Blythe orchard, Gilbert with a basket filled with more of Mary’s scones and Anne with their books in her backpack.

“Hey, remember in school today when you thought you were a good liar?” Anne said out of nowhere, about halfway to their destination. 

“What about it?” he smiled.

“Just wanted to say I told you so. You were as red as my hair when Mary asked what our plans were”. 

“Technically, I wasn’t lying. I just didn’t tell her the truth, there's a difference. ” he said annoyed. “Besides, if I looked anything like your amazing hair I must have been the most beautiful person in that room” he smirked. 

“Very smooth, Blythe. But the other three people in that room are the only women in your life so you might need to work on flirting without insulting them”. Anne finished the sentence just as they walked past the first tree in the orchard, so she took her chance and carefully pinned him to it with his back against the trunk. 

“Is that so, Shirley?” he asked with a big smile on his face before leaning in and capturing her lips with his. 

  
  


A long make out session later, they had laid down the blanket they brought and were looking up at the clouds in silence. 

“Hey, you know we aren’t doing anything wrong, right?” Anne whispered, taking Gilbert's hand in hers. She knew that he felt bad for not only lying to his niece, but also to his brother and sister.

“I know, I just feel guilty not telling them about us when they know that I’m so in love with you”

Anne nudged his shoulder with hers. “Disgustingly so?” she teased, trying to distract herself from remembering that she, in fact, didn’t feel any guilt from lying to everyone close to her.

“Obviously”

“Well, I love you too. Happy two month anniversary, Gil”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think and what you would want to see more (or less) of in future chapters!


	3. Anne needs to get laid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The friends play cringey drinking games, Anne and Gilbert have a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I hope you are doing well! :)
> 
> This chapter mentions alcohol in a non-graphic way.

Friday evening came around and the different friend groups found themselves sitting in a ring on the floor of Moody’s basement. A bunch of snacks were in bowls in between them and the different drinks, half of them bought by Paul’s older brother and half stolen from different parents, were on a table against the wall. The group were listening to music and talking before deciding to play “never have I ever” as a way to get everyone tipsy enough to let loose. 

The game started with relatively innocent statements like “never have I ever cheated on a test” (Anne, Gil and Diana were the only ones who hadn’t) and “never have I ever kissed someone” (everyone took a sip). Charlie was the one who took it a step further, going from “never have I ever run from the police” (Cole and Tillie drank) to “never have I ever had oral”. Cole, of course, continued the new theme with “never have I ever pleasured myself while thinking of someone in this room”. It spiraled from there. 

It was difficult for Anne and Gilbert to determine how honest they were going to be during the game. For the first time in two months they realised that they weren’t on the same page. Gilbert drank whenever he had done the thing that was asked and ignored his friends' looks and follow up questions while Anne lied most of the time saying that she had never done it, earning herself confused looks from Gilbert. 

She still felt guilty from the conversation they had had in the orchard, where she realised that he felt bad for keeping the relationship a secret while she didn’t. Realistically Anne knew that they should have a conversation about it,  _ maybe we would have been on the same page now if we did _ . She, however, decided to create some space between them until she figured out how to have that conversation.

Ruby quickly got tired of being one of few relatively sober people in the room, one of the cons that comes with being the innocent friend (“No way I’m the only one who hasn’t stolen alcohol from my parents. Even you, Jerry?”). Therefore she decided they should play truth or drink instead. 

The large group were deciding the rules of the game, disagreeing as usual. Josie suggested there should be a rule against asking questions you already know the answer to, since Cole had a habit of using the game to expose secrets he already knew. Charlie disagreed, his main argument being that it’s harder to embarrass each other if you ask a question you don’t know the answer to (“that’s kind of the point, idiot” Jane explained). 

Gilbert took his chance to take Anne aside to refill their drinks by the table. Quietly, he asked her about what happened during the previous game and why she was lying.

“I wasn’t lying, I just didn’t follow the rules of the game” Anne joked, understanding that she had misread the conversation when Gilbert’s face fell.

“I’m serious” he explained, pouring a shot of whatever Paul’s brother had bought and opening another beer.

“If I admit to doing those things, everyone would know about us.” 

“Well now everyone must think I have a secret girlfriend or am the king of secret hookups or something” 

“You could have just done the same thing as me” she whispered, starting to get annoyed that Gilbert didn't understand her point of view.

“Or we both could have been honest?”

“If we were, they would figure it out.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” he asked, sounding hurt and already a little drunk. 

“Are you being serious right now?”

“It’s been two months, I am sure about this relationship. Are you?” 

“This is not the time or place to have this conversation, Gilbert.” she took a deep breath. “Lets just enjoy the party and we can talk about this tomorrow”. 

“Fine, whatever” Gilbert said annoyedly, drank his shot and walked back to his seat on the floor.

Anne stayed at the table, refilling her glass and took a couple of more deep breaths.  _ Where was this coming from? _

The game turned out to be more interesting than they thought. Tillie answered a question about which of the Pauls she prefers and Diana took a shot when asked about who she was crushing on (and blushed when Jerry made eye contact with her). Gilbert told the truth if he had hooked up with anyone on his exchange year as a fifteen year old (he hadn’t, but shared a few kisses with another exchange student from Germany), Anne took a sip when asked who the last person she sent a nude to was and Paul L answered that he lost his virginity when he was 16 while Moody both drank and told them about his first kiss, not understanding the rules of the game. 

The teenagers continued with the game for a few more rounds, most of them drunk after 30 minutes since Josie’s suggestion had been overruled. Anne had taken it slow, only on her second glass of cheap red wine (the only thing Diana had dared to steal from her parents). She put her plastic cup down on the light gray carpet they all were sitting on and listened to Ruby telling them the most embarrassing thing that had happened to her. Moody sent her a not-so-appropriate picture last week, which her little sister had accidentally seen over her shoulder. Moody left the room in the middle of it, still too embarrassed to hear the story.

Josie got up to stretch her legs when Ruby was done and everyone in the room was laughing. By accident she nudged Anne’s cup with her foot, making it fall over and spill the remaining liquid on the carpet. 

“Shit!” Anne exclaimed, getting up to find something to clean it up with. Gilbert rose, having been at Moody’s a hundred times, and went to the supply closet to get her a rag and other cleaning supplies his drunken mind thought could be helpful. He handed it to her while avoiding eye contact, still annoyed after their conversation.

Josie stumbled her way to the table where they had set up the drinks and got a glass of water and returned to Anne, who was now on her knees trying to scrub away the stain. Josie poured the glass over the purple patch on the carpet, but missed and got half of the water on Anne. 

“Thanks, like you haven’t done enough” she said under her breath, projecting the anger she felt towards Gilbert on Josie. 

“I’m just trying to help, Anne.” she mumbled and sat down next to her. 

“Try helping me get rid of this stain instead, before Moody gets back”. Despite living with the Cuthberts in a safe home for almost eight years, Anne couldn’t help getting deja vu from her times at other foster homes when smaller stains than this had resulted in her being thrown out or beaten. 

“Aren’t you the smart one? I don’t know anything about stains” Josie asked, having no idea what was going through Anne’s head. 

Moody returned, confused as to what was happening. 

Josie continued “just use your knowledge from the foster homes you were in before you came here, so that we don’t have to make a big deal out of this.”

“How the fuck would I know how to get rid of a red wine stain, Josie?” Anne screamed, tired of being the only one in the room who wasn’t shit-face drunk and hurt from having her old memories thrown in her face by someone who did not even know half of what she had been through. 

“Anne, it’s fine. We’ll fix it with some baking soda tomorrow morning. It’s happened before, you can relax” Moody said, shocking everyone with how calm and serious he was. Anne looked up at him with watery eyes, _ maybe I’m not as sober as I think I am _ , and gave him a thankful smile. 

“Yeah Anne, you’re just too uptight sometimes. You really need to get laid or something”. Josie said, going back to her place on the carpet. 

That made Gilbert practically choke on the beer in his hand and everyone went silent, not knowing how to react. The only sound came from the speakers and Gilbert coughing. Everyone was used to Anne panicking about things others wouldn’t care about, but no one had dared to question it, afraid of being treated the same way as Gilbert was after he had called her ‘carrots’ the first time they met. 

“Excuse you!” Diana yelled defensively, “what makes you think you can talk to my best friend like that?” 

Anne just shook her head, Diana had a tendency to become overly aggressive after too many drinks. 

“I’m just saying, you would probably be more fun to hang out with if you weren’t so tense all the time” Josie continued, “It’s just a small stain, no big deal.”

Anne looked at her and whispered an “okay”, realising she wasn’t really angry at Josie. She was mad at herself,  _ I shouldn’t have gotten angry at Gilbert just because we aren’t on the same page for the first time _ . 

“You know I mean well, Anne. I love you and you deserve to have some good sex”. 

Moody noticed that the tips of Gilbert’s ears were more red than they were a minute ago.  _ How much had he had to drink? _

Everyone was surprised when Josie’s comment made Anne laugh. “Thanks for the suggestion, maybe you are right” she joked and suggested they should continue with the game. 

They split up into smaller soon groups after that. Jane, Charlie and Anne were sitting on the couch scrolling on their phones and watching Cole and Ruby play Mario kart. Ruby lost for the third time in a row and suddenly turned to Anne.

“Hey I just thought of something, if you really do want to get laid you should talk to that Roy guy you flirted with at lunch today” she said, having lost her filter due to the alcohol. “He’s easy on the eyes and you guys seem to have good chemistry.” That caught Gilbert’s attention from across the room,  _ who was flirting with Roy and they had what? _

“Thanks Rubes, I’ll consider it” Anne laughed and stuck her tongue out at Cole when he gave her a disapproving look. 

Cole had always been the biggest shipper of Gilbert and Anne, even referring to them as “Shirbert” to annoy her. Anne didn’t know if it had something to do with her mentioning that she liked Gilbert’s chin just when they had become friends or if it was because Cole was sure Gilbert had had a crush on her when they were  _ just  _ academic rivals. When the two of them had confessed their feelings for each other, the only negative part for Anne was knowing that Cole had, in fact, been right. 

Jane nudged her shoulder “You should go for it, Roy is cute and it seems like everyone is full of hormones these days. And honestly, who wouldn’t sleep with you?” Anne laughed before giving her a weird look to signal that she didn't know what she meant, while noting that her filter had also been affected by the alcohol. 

“Oh, you didn’t hear? Even Gil is getting some these days” she explained and pointed towards the curly haired boy who they realised were walking towards them. His eyebrows shot up in panic, his eyes wide. 

“What are you guys talking about?” He asked, trying to sound like he didn’t overhear. Anne gave him a questioning look, it almost looked sad. _Is he cheating on me? Is it cheating if we aren’t public?_ _Are we even boyfriend and girlfriend, was that what he meant earlier when he was asking if I was sure about the relationship?_

“We were just telling Anne here about that hickey you showed up with a couple of days ago” Charlie smiled teasingly, well aware that Gilbert had had a crush on her since they met. 

A smile of relief grew across her lips “a hickey huh?” she grinned at him, knowing that she was responsible for it and that he wasn’t cheating on her. She was still angry at him for what happened earlier, but couldn’t show it in front of their friends, so she made space for him to sit next to her on the couch. Ruby, haven given up on the videogame, gave her controller to Jane and went to find Moody. 

Time passed, Jerry decided to take an early bus back home since he had a strict curfew. He, Anne and Gilbert lived the furthest away from Moody, who was practically neighbours with their school. Diana, Paul M and Charlie took the same bus as him but got off earlier. 

More people left, or were kicked out by Moody for throwing up in the stairs (Paul L) until the only ones left were Anne and Ruby, who were cleaning up, and Jane and Gilbert who had fallen asleep on the couch.

“Did Moody go to bed already?” Anne asked as she mopped the stairs. 

“Yeah, he doesn’t respond well to alcohol” Ruby answered, wiping the table. 

“Do you know how Jane is getting home? Gil and I have to leave for the bus in ten minutes”

“She said Prissy would be getting her, but she’ll probably end up staying the night and help us clean up the rest tomorrow morning. That’s what usually happens.” 

“We should hang out with her more, I miss her” Anne thought out loud. 

“I do too, should we invite her to study with us on Monday?” 

“Sounds like a plan”

Anne had to drag a half-asleep Gilbert from Moody’s house to the bus stop in the cold, spring night. When the bus came she made him get on first, he settled in on a window seat and took Anne’s hand when she sat down next to him. They hadn’t said much to each other on their walk to the bus stop or while waiting for the bus. Anne was still noticeably annoyed at Gilbert for not understanding her and Gilbert was way too drunk and tired to have a proper conversation. 

“I’ve missed you” he finally said, leaning his head on her shoulder. 

“We drove to school together this morning and you saw me the entire night”

“But we haven't hung out alone since Tuesday and I’ve barely spoken to you today” he said in a sad voice, still holding her hand. 

“And yet you’ve managed to upset me” she said under her breath. 

“Could we not fight? My head is already starting to hurt and I just want to cuddle”

“Fine, try to sleep for a while” Anne whispered. She was also tired and not in the mood to have a big fight, so she was glad Gilbert said something (not that she would admit that). He fell asleep on Anne’s shoulder while hugging her arm and slept for the remaining 20 minutes of the busride. She woke him up by carefully shaking him just before they needed to get off the bus. 

They were met by the drizzle outside, Gilbert was still wobbly on his feet and needed to hold on to Anne for stability as they walked towards their houses. 

“Can we go to mine tonight? I don’t want Matthew or Marilla to see me like this” Gilbert slurred, still not really awake from his nap. Despite his intoxicated state, he still cared what Anne’s parents thought of him.

“I actually think I want to sleep in my own bed tonight. Alone”

Gilbert stopped her, “I thought we weren’t fighting?” 

“I’m still angry at you. We’ll just talk about it tomorrow, after your game.”

“Please stay with me tonight, it’s not like we need to do anything. I understand that you’re upset and that you’re not in the mood.”

“You need to get a good night's sleep if you’re planning on performing well at the game.”

“I just want to cuddle, we haven’t slept in the same bed in days. I don’t want to be alone, I want to be with you” he mumbled, reaching down to hug her.

“Well, I want to be alone. I’ll help you get inside without waking anyone but then I’m leaving” Anne said and started walking again. 

“How did we even get like this? Why do you want to keep us a secret?”

“I told you, we’ll talk about this tomorrow:”

“Are you ashamed of me or something? Or do you want to keep the door open for other guys?”

“Don’t.” tears started forming in her eyes. 

“Are you afraid of what our friends will think? Because I’m pretty sure Cole would explode with happiness”

“That’s not it.”

“Is it Matthew and Marilla? I thought they liked me?”

“Gilbert, could we please stop?”

“Or am I just not good enough for the perfect Anne Shirley-Cuthbert?”

“Gil-”

“Are you just afraid of being loved publically?” he said louder, also feeling angry now.

“I would stop if I were you”, tears were running down her cheeks, which he would notice if his vision wasn’t blurred. 

“I thought this would be temporary. Do you even feel guilty for lying to everyone in your life?”

“You know what? Fuck you, Gilbert”

“Your friends would probably prefer if you fucked Roy Gardner instead”

“You are unbelievable” she said, now screaming in the middle of the dark street.

“Is that why you don’t want to tell anyone?”

“Are you stupid?”

“Apparently.”

“Good luck getting home by yourself, don’t wake up Dellie” Anne yelled, turning her heel and going the opposite way, towards Green Gables while trying to hold in her sobs.

“You are so selfish, you know that?” Gilbert screamed after her and started stumbling to his house, already regretting it. 

Anne was fully crying when she reached their side door and had to take a few minutes to breathe and calm down before going inside, to make sure she wouldn’t wake anyone. She brought a bottle of water with her upstairs to her room, closed the door and fell onto the bed fully crying again. 

  
Without washing the smudged makeup off of her tearstained face she changed into pyjamas and got under the covers of her bed, still crying.  _ Did we just break up? I shouldn’t have let it go that far. Gilbert was right, I am selfish. How could he think I would want anyone other than him? How could he think that I’m ashamed of him? I miss him already, should I go there and apologise right now? No, he is probably throwing up or already asleep on the bathroom floor by now. I bet he doesn’t even care about the fight.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I honestly thought this story wouldn't do well so I'm shocked at the good feedback. I've been fangirling all weekend over that writers I love have given me kudos, so thank you!
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of the chapter. Do you want me to solve the angst in the next chapter or would you prefer if I dragged it out? Please feel free to criticise me too :)


	4. Hockey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gil plays hockey and Anne spends some time with his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers, thank you for your support. 
> 
> I promise to try to update faster and longer chapters in the future. 
> 
> Some events in this chapter are inspired by Hikari89, I hope they don't hate what I turned their suggestion into.

A shaky hand knocked on the front door of Green Gables early that Saturday morning. Gilbert, who the hand belonged to, had barely slept that night and ran to his neighbours’ house as soon as he woke up and showered. He was aware he looked like shit, he felt like it too, but it didn’t matter. He needed to speak to Anne. Not knowing whether to be relieved or worried when Marilla opened the door, he was ushered inside. 

“What are you doing here? Anne told me you had a hockey game today.” Marilla asked, confused as to why the teenage boy was at their door this early in the morning. 

“I do, I just really need to speak with Anne. Is she up?” Gilbert answered, nervously avoiding eye contact by looking down at his feet. 

“I don’t think so, she came home late last night. By the looks of it, so did you.”

“Could I please go upstairs to see her? It’s really important.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, you’ll see her at your game, though.”

“Please, Marilla.” he begged and thought about how much Anne would want her to know about what happened last night. “We had a fight yesterday and I said some really stupid things to her that i defenetly didn’t mean” he explained sadly, looking into Marilla’s eyes for the first time that morning.  _ That’s it, they are going to hate me now. Not that it matters if Anne is going to break up with me. Nothing else will matter if that happens. _

“If that’s the case, do you really think she would like being woken up by you?” Marilla asked, understanding why she had been woken up by her daughter crying in the middle of the night.

Gilbert hadn’t thought of that.  _ Maybe I should let her come to me when she’s rea-.  _ His thought was cut off by hearing someone walk down the stairs. 

“What are  _ you  _ doing here?” Anne asked, still in her pyjamas and her hair in a messy bun on the side of her head. She had washed her face since yesterday but there were still dark mascara stains around her eyes. 

“Can we talk? Please” Gilbert asked, looking at her with eyes full of sadness and forgetting that Marilla was still in the room. 

Anne nodded, still standing on the stairs and went back upstairs. Gilbert took the hint, following her, and shot a sad smile over his shoulder to Marilla before taking the stairs two at a time. 

They got into Anne’s room and Gilbert shut the door behind him, before he could register anything else Anne’s face was buried in his chest and her arms wrapped around his waist. 

“I am so, so sorry” she whispered, his shirt mumbling her voice. He could feel the t-shirt he was wearing getting damp where her eyes were and immediately hugged her back, burying his nose in her bun. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any of it, I’m sorry” Gilbert whispered, afraid to speak louder.

“I love you so much. We can go public, I don’t care. Just please don’t break up with me.”

“What?” he let go of her and took a step back to look her in the eyes. “I thought you would want to break up with me. I was crying all night thinking you would never want to talk to me again.”

“I was crying all night because you were right. I am being selfish and I understand if you don't want to do this anymore.” 

“Are you kidding? Being with you has been the best two months and three days of my life. I love you.”

“Really?” she sniffled.

“Really.”

“I hate fighting with you.” 

“Me too, let's never do it again.”

Anne started crying again and let Gilbert comfort her, he led them to her bed and sat down, also letting some tears slip. They held each other until Anne calmed down. 

“You know we need to talk about this, right? When we’re alone and sober.” Anne finally spoke after minutes of silence.

“Yeah, I know.”

“And you need to get ready for the game now.”

“Will you still be there?”

“Of course. Maybe we could talk after we put Dellie to bed tonight? That gives us a reason not to raise our voices and Bash and Mary will be out.”

“Okay, I could do that.” he whispered and squeezed her hand.

“Are we okay for now?”

“Do you forgive me for saying those awful and untrue things?”

“Only if you forgive me for making you question how much I love you, which is a lot by the way.”

“Deal” he said smiling, hugging her closer. 

Anne went with Mary, Bash and Delphine to the game since Gilbert had to be there early and warm up with his teammates, Bash had given him a ride to the ice rink when he returned from Anne’s. She usually went to Gilberts games with Diana and Ruby since Moody played in the same team and Ruby didn’t want to support him by herself. Diana didn’t understand the rules and was mostly there for the snacks and cute boys. Anne, however, loved hockey. She had been a fan since she was in foster care where the only entertainment available was books and radio stations with enthusiastic sport commentators. If she had had the resources as a child, she was convinced she would be playing for Avonlea’s women's team, who were much better than the men’s. Her friends used to complain about how she embarrassed them by cheering too loud or by screaming at the referee when they judged something she didn’t agree with. Today she decided to watch the game with her neighbours instead, wanting to avoid hanging out with her hangover friends (who were too tired to show up anyways). 

It was the last game of the year and Anne knew that the Avonlea team wouldn’t do well. Not only were a majority of players on their team most likely hungover from last night (professionalism wasn’t a priority for the boys), they weren’t nearly skilled enough to beat the best team on Prince Edward Island. That didn’t matter to Anne though, she was still enthusiastic and couldn’t wait to cheer them on. 

At the ice rink, they were one of the first families to show up, which was unusual considering they had a grumpy three year old with them. Mary had informed Anne, in the car, that Dellie had been in a mood since yesterday, to warn her of potential tantrums that could be thrown during the day. Dellie had refused to hold her parents hands on their way to the seats and screamed that she wanted a hot dog when they got there. 

“They're so adorable at this age” Bash sighed sarcastically when Mary went to buy the snacks, not having the energy to fight the child on that one. 

“Trust me, I know. I lived with twins who were this age and I honestly have no idea how I survived” Anne replied but smiled down towards Delphine who was sitting in between them. She was looking at the players warming up on the ice, not caring about the conversation happening above her head. Bash gave Anne a smile, he didn’t know much about her life before Avonlea but with the little information Gilbert and Matthew had given him he could imagine it wasn’t an easy one. 

Mary returned and gave Delphine the hot dog she wanted and offered Anne a coffee. Anne thanked her and laughed, she must have known some parts of what had happened last night. Or maybe Mary could just see the tiredness in her face and understood how much she needed the caffeine. Dellie finished her food really fast, considering she was only three years old, and looked up at Anne. 

“Can we go say hello to uncle Gilby?” she said excitedly, knowing that her parents would say no if she asked them.

“Uncle Gilby is getting ready to play, honey. You'll see him after the game.” Mary answered for Anne, confirming Delphine’s thought.

“But I want to see him now and he’s waving” Dellie pouted and pointed towards the tall boy on the other side of the ice, standing without his helmet and club, looking at them. The three adults in the company looked up to see him skate to their side. 

Anne looked at Bash, who gestured that she could take her down to the plastic that separated the ice from the bleachers. 

“We can say a quick hello, okay?” Anne smiled at Dellie who lifted her arms up to show that she wanted Anne to carry her down. Gilbert gave them a huge grin when they arrived. Dellie smiled back and waved to her uncle while playing with one of the two long, red braids of the person whose hip she was sitting on. 

Gilbert waved back through the see-through plastic separating them and couldn’t help how his heart melted seeing Anne holding Delphine with one arm and holding her to-go coffee mug in the other. He had secretly smiled to himself when he saw Anne walk in with his family, but this felt even better. It had been one thing knowing that his best friend in the entire world, who he secretly had a crush on, was close with his family. It was another seeing his now girlfriend, even though it was a secret, with his niece on her hip.  _ Delphine is so comfortable with her _ . 

He looked away from his happy niece and back at Anne, who gave him a small smile. They were okay for now, but Gilbert could see that she still was sad because of him. Not knowing how to break the tension between them, Gilbert mouthed “you look pretty” through the plastic and hoped that Bash couldn’t read his lips from where he was sitting, looking at the three of them with a grin. 

Anne slightly blushed and looked behind him, her smile growing. Jerry skated in their direction and stopped beside Gilbert before waving to Delphine. She gave him an excited wave back and turned her head to look at Anne, just in case she had missed the appearance of their tall neighbour. 

She chuckled and whispered to Delphine “Do you want to wish them good luck before their game?” Dellie shook her head, suddenly getting grumpy again and tried to release herself from Anne’s hold. 

“Well, we should go. Good luck, you two!” Anne said instead and turned around to walk back to their seats, still holding Dellie. 

The game was in full play and, as usual, Bash did not understand any of it. Despite living in Canada for years and his brother actually playing the sport, he didn’t find it interesting enough to learn the rules of hockey. He would come to some games, show his support for his younger brother and eat popcorn while his wife was cheering for the team. Mary loved hockey and had even played the sport herself, before she became a teen mother and had to prioritise her son Elijah. 

“Offside!” Anne all of a sudden stood up and yelled with her hands in the air. Mary joined her in standing up, both of them annoyed over how the referee didn’t see how the other team  _ clearly  _ were offside. 

“What's ‘offside’ daddy?” Dellie asked her father and looked at the two women like they were crazy. 

“I have no idea, sweetheart. Something with the defence.. Or offence?” Bash answered honestly, smiling at the thought of him and Gilbert having such similar taste in women. 

Five minutes passed before Jerry scored the first goal of the match, which made Anne so happy she actually hugged the stranger sitting next to her and cheered for her little brother figure. When Gilbert scored the next one, Anne was so proud that she wanted to run onto the ice right into his arms. She settled with cheering louder and standing up in hopes of catching his eye. She didn’t, but Bash managed to see the difference in her cheers for Jerry and her cheers for Gilbert. Turns out, he found that there were advantages with not understanding the game and being able to focus on other things. 

The opposite team started scoring after that and the game ended with Avonlea losing with five goals. The Lacroixs and Anne were now waiting for Gilbert to finish up in the locker room so that they could go home and Bash and Mary could get ready for their date night. The only ones left were parents of the guys in the two teams and a group of girls that Anne figured were the players’ girlfriends. She recognized most of them from school, but only knew the names of a few. 

Moody was the first one out from the Avonlea team and since neither his parents (who were out of town) or Ruby (who was probably still hungover in his bed) were there to meet him Anne decided to go up to him and compliment his playing. He was the goalie and probably the best player on their team this match, so he deserved some praise. 

“Great game, Moods. I’m guessing you're feeling okay, despite yesterday?” Anne laughed and gave him an one armed hug, 

“Yeah, Ruby made me drink a ton of water. Thank you” he smiled.

“I’m still very sorry about your carpet, do you want me to go with you home and help you remove the stain?”

“Jane helped me this morning, the carpet is basically good as new.” he laughed, happy that Anne cared about the mess from the night before even though there was no need to. 

“You are the best!”

“I can give you a ride home though, if you need one.”

“Oh no, it’s fine. I'm here with the Lacroixs.” Anne gestured to the two parents who were now fighting with their daughter. 

“I noticed, the other team was talking about the fiery redhead who kept screaming at the referee.”

Anne laughed, “I wonder who that can be, she sounds crazy.”

“Trust me, she definitely is.” Moody started walking backwards to the parking lot and yelled “See you Monday!” before turning around. 

“Take care of Ruby and tell Jane ‘thank you’” Anne yelled to him and heard him chuckle. 

Just as she was about to return to the Lacroixs, she saw the group of girls swarming the locker room entrance. Anne gave Mary a confused look and she shrugged in response, holding an angry Delphine’s hand. 

“Looks like our boy is popular!” Bash laughed. 

Anne looked over at the group and noticed a familiar set of brown curls in the middle of them.  _ Were all those girls waiting for Gilbert? _ Before Anne and Gil had gotten together, she was aware that he had a hockey fanclub and frankly she was quite jealous of them. However, once they became a thing Anne figured that he had begun to decline the girls who  _ clearly  _ wanted to be more than friends. 

She chewed on her bottom lip.  _ I’m not actually jealous of them, am I? He told me, just a couple hours ago, that he loved me. We are okay, right? _ But in all honesty, she wanted nothing more than to walk up to him and kiss him in front of all those girls. Not to claim him or anything, just to show them that he liked someone else.  _ Okay, maybe I am jealous _ .

When Gilbert made it out of the group of admirers, Bash raised his eyebrows towards him. 

“Not a word!” Gilbert said, already prepared for the teasing he knew was about to come out of his brother’s mouth, before going to Dellie, lifting her up and kissing her cheek. 

“Well played today” Anne said quietly, giving him a tight lipped smile before starting to walk towards the car. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any ideas for this fic, I really appreciate it. 
> 
> Stay hydrated, social distance and take care. :)


	5. Why are you kissing?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gilbert babysit, Gil is a moke and they get caught.

“I want to stay with mummy!” Delphine cried, hitting her father's chest with her fist, just as Anne opened the front door to the Blythe-Lacroix household. After being told she didn’t need to knock, countless times, Anne was used to letting herself inside the home. However, she wasn’t usually met by a family fight in the hall. 

Gilbert, who was trying to take his niece from her father’s arms, looked tired. Apparently being hungover, not sleeping, playing a hockey game and having a family fight lead to exhaustion. 

Mary, who was standing next to her husband all dressed up, was on the verge of tears. “Let’s just forget about it, we’ll stay home.” she sighed, ready to give up. 

Anne had no idea what had happened since they let her off after the hockey game, but puzzled together the pieces.  _ They really need a date night. _ Making up her mind about giving the parents a child-free night, she leaned towards Bash and tried to take Delphine from him. The three year old willingly let Anne carry her and let go of her dad, still crying over not wanting her parents to leave. 

“Delphine, I thought we had plans to play today. I brought ingredients for pasta that we can cook with Gil tonight. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Anne whispered in a voice she only used when talking to children, looking down at the sad child sitting on her hip. 

“Gilby is a moke. I want mummy!” she cried even harder, trying to get out of Anne’s arms when realising her auntie wasn’t on her side. Anne sighed and tried to calm Delphine down by caressing her head of dark curls. That was a mistake, she did not want to be calmed down and showed it by screaming, punching Anne’s forehead with her palm. 

“Delphine!” Mary and Gilbert yelled together, without Anne paying attention to them. She let down Delphine and crunched down to be at her eye level. 

“That was not very nice. I understand you want to be with your mummy and daddy, but they have plans tonight so you are going to have to stay with me and Gilbert. They will be back tomorrow when you wake up.” Anne tried to reason with the three year old. It didn’t work, Delphine continued to cry. It did, however, distract her long enough for Gilbert to push Bash and Mary out of the door and wish them a good night. 

“Are you okay?” Gilbert asked when he returned, making Delphine realise what happened and start crying even more. Anne nodded as an answer and gave him a small smile when he leaned down to where she was still crouching, opposite Delphine, and placed a kiss on the top of her head. 

It took three episodes of her favourite animated tv-show and loads of attention from her two babysitters for Delphine to calm down. The only reason she agreed to leave the comfort of her uncle’s lap was hunger. Dellie´s favourite part of Anne babysitting her was cooking together and, unlike the food Gilbert made, it actually had taste. All three of them were in the kitchen, Delphine sitting on the counter taking the responsibility of being the ‘official taste tester’ very seriously, Anne in front of the stove stirring the sauce and Gilbert dancing to the music of Delphine´s choice, beside the table. 

“You were right, Gilby really is a moke” Anne laughed after looking over her shoulder at the boy who had no rhythm, feeding Dellie a spoon full of red sauce that she had spent the past two minutes blowing on to make sure it wasn’t too hot. 

“That’s what daddy says” the cheeky child told Anne proudly, mouth full of the content from the spoon. 

“At least I’m not light headed after blowing on a spoon for a ridiculous amount of time” Gilbert laughed, a little out of breath from dancing by himself, and went to stand behind Anne. He snaked his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. 

Gilbert’s favourite part about babysitting with Anne was being able to show some affection to her without his niece caring. Delphine was getting older and understood most of the world around her, but she wasn’t old enough to understand the boundaries of affection between grownup friendships and romantic relationships. As long as he didn’t kiss Anne on the lips in front of her, she didn’t know better. 

Anne rested her head on Gilbert’s for a second or two, before turning and giving him a small peck on the cheek.  _ God, I love him _ . The gesture made Gilbert hug her waist tighter, before letting go completely and turning to his niece. 

“Do you want to dance, princess Delphine?” he asked with a grin, carrying her down from the counter when she nodded eagerly. Together the two of them spun around the kitchen to a childrens’ song Anne had never heard before, but her boyfriend and niece seemed to know every word of. 

Anne’s favourite part about babysitting Dellie was her happiness. She had never met a child who was as happy as the three year old twirling around with her uncle, even when she had bad days Anne could tell that the child felt safe. She had never seen that before, the kids she grew up with before arriving in Avonlea were in the same situation she was. Either without parents or with parents who couldn’t take care of them, going between homes and not having a safe place. Her favourite thing about babysitting with Gilbert was how natural it felt for them to take care of a child together. It hadn’t been as easy or natural for her and Diana to babysit Minnie-May together, a few years prior. 

“Dinner is served” Anne smiled, putting down the pot on the already set table. The two teenagers took turns feeding Dellie, in hopes to spill as little as possible. They failed, Dellie wanted to eat by herself,like a big girl she was, but had a tendency to miss her mouth with her fork. 

The meal ended in laughs. “Maybe next time we should make something less messy” Anne suggested, standing up to remove Dellie’s bib.

“That sounds like a good idea” Gilbert answered, wiping sauce from his face with a napkin. 

Anne gestured to the kitchen table, “if you take care of this mess”, she looked down at Delphine “I’ll get this one cleaned up”. 

“Good luck with that” Gilbert joked, knowing the consequences of giving his niece a bath. 

“We will be just fine, won’t we sweetheart?” Anne asked Dellie who was holding her hand, ready to go up the stairs to the bathroom. 

Half an hour later, Gilbert had finished the dishes and made his way up to the bathroom to see how the girls were doing. Not surprised, he found a drenched Anne sitting beside the bathtub, in which a laughing Delphine played with bubbles. Anne looked up to see him chuckle down at them, noticing that his eyes lingered on her chest where her white t-shirt had gotten see through because of the water.

“Everything seems to be going perfect in here, I’ll just go take a nap then”, he turned around and left the room, coming back three minutes later with a pair of sweatpants and one of his t-shirts for Anne to change into. 

He gave her the clothes and leaned down to whisper in her ear, so that Dellie wouldn’t ask follow up questions, “this is not what I would imagine if you told me the evening would end with you getting wet”. He visibly struggled to hold in his laughter, knowing how bad the line was but couldn’t resist saying it. 

“You’re a moke” Anne blushed, standing up. Before exiting, to get changed in his room, she reminded him “we still need to have a conversation, you know?”. 

“Trust me, I remember” 

Gilbert looked down at his still smiling niece when Anne left. “Did you do that on purpose?” he asked, referring to soaking Anne with a ridiculous amount of water. Dellie nodded cheekily. 

Gilbert finished the rest of Delphines bath and dried her up while Anne was changing into his clothes. They played with her in her room for a while and read her a couple of extra bed time stories, comforting her when she missed her parents, until she fell asleep in her bed. Anne and Gilbert sneaked downstairs, he went straight to turn on the kettle and she just sat down at the now clean kitchen table. 

“So, I guess we should begin” Anne said sadly, playing with her hands.

“I guess we should” Gilbert replied, taking two cups out of the cupboard and putting a tea bag in each. 

“I know you feel bad for lying about us and that you want everyone to know” she started. “I really wish I wanted that too, I wish I felt guilty about lying and I wish I felt ready to tell people. But I’m not”

“That’s okay.”

“It’s just, I- I’m enjoying the privacy of not having anyone know and everything will change when we tell them.” 

“What? What do you mean?” The water in the kettle finished boiling. 

“When our families find out they’ll act weird, Bash would constantly tease you and Marilla will become very overly protective and Matthew would run to the barn every time you are over.”

“It won’t be that bad. I mean, I see what you mean but it won’t be that different.” He put the cups of tea in front of them.

“Cole would never leave us alone or let us live this down. Diana would be so mad at me for not telling her sooner, Ruby would question if something happened between us when she had a crush on you, Tillie would accidentally tell the entire school and …” Anne started talking faster while listing her friends’ reactions. 

“And?” 

“Actually, your friends would probably be cool about it. How did you befriend sensible human beings? Can you teach me?”

“Trust me, they’re not sensible. They would probably laugh at how long it took us and tell you every embarrassing thing I’ve done.” Gilbert laughed. 

“I would love that!” She took a sip of tea. “Do you see my point?”

“I do. And if you want to keep this secret a while longer I’m okay with that, as long as it’s still temporary.”

“A couple of weeks or a month ish? Just so I can prepare myself for the mean comments and gossip, don’t say anything, you and I both know people will talk! And we could enjoy the freedom a little while longer?” 

“Okay, that sounds fair.” He sighed. “But if anyone has anything bad to say about you they will have to go through me first.”

“Oh please, you’re weak. You couldn’t even take a book to your face, by a ten year old girl, without basically getting a concussion.”

Gilbert laughed. “Hey, that was a strong ten year old girl!”

“Yeah, she was the strongest.” 

“One condition though.”

“What’s that?” she reached for his hand across the table. 

“Please don’t flirt with Roy Gardner, anymore. Or anyone else”

“God, I wasn’t flirting! Girls smile and are genuinely nice to a guy and suddenly everyone thinks they’re crushing on him. I was just telling Roy about the meaning of the book title “Lord of the flies” and Ruby makes it sound like I was proposing to him.”

“Wow you’re such a nerd, never mind!” He laughed again. “Flirt with any guy you’d like, they’ll most likely be too stupid to understand what you are saying.”

Anne let go of his hand and hit his arm playfully. “But, I get your point. We agreed to be exclusive and I don’t want anyone other than you.”

“I don’t want to be with anyone other than you, either.” 

Anne took a deep breath.“Does that mean you would consider turning down your hockey fanclub?”

“Wait. Anne, are you jealous of the rinkrats?” Gilbert looked amused. 

“What? Absolutely not!”

“Oh my god, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert is jealous!”

“It's not funny, Gilbert!”

“I’ve been in love with you since I was 11, please let me enjoy this.” 

“No, because there is nothing to enjoy. I am not jealous.”

“So you didn’t want to mark your territory earlier today? When those beautiful, intelligent women surrounded me?” he grinned.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” 

“You didn’t want to walk up to me and kiss me in front of all of them?”

“Now you’re just being stupid.”  _ Why does he know me so well? Can he read minds? Did he read my mind at the rink? Is he reading my mind right now? No, of course not. Don’t be stupid, Anne. _

“Yeah, I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about.” He teased, knowing he was right and feeling giddy about it. 

After talking it out for nearly an hour, the two decided to go up to Gilbert’s room and watch a couple of episodes of Friends while waiting for Bash and Mary to come back home. Gilbert’s head was on Anne’s chest, almost asleep, with his arm hugging her middle. She massaged his scalp, playing with his curls. 

“How hungover do you think Bash and Mary will be tomorrow, for Sunday night dinner?” Gilbert asked suddenly, not looking up from the TV on his bedroom wall. 

“I hope they don’t feel as bad as you looked this morning” Anne joked.

“Shut up! I hope they went crazy tonight, so we can look after Dellie tomorrow too.”

“I don’t think your brother and his wife need to be hungover for you to take care of your niece, who you live with.”

“But it would give you a reason to help me” he said, getting up enough to kiss her jaw. She chuckled and his lips continued their way down her throat and up again until they landed on hers. She let out a wimper as his lips moved slowly on top of hers.  _ God, I’ve missed him. _ Just as he was about to climb on top of her, the show on the TV completely forgotten, the door opened and the light from the hallway showed a small girl in pink pyjamas carrying her teddy bear. 

“Why are you kissing?” She asked innocently, walking into the room, towards the bed where Anne and Gilbert looked at her in panic. 

“Uh- we, uh ...” Gilbert started, his mind blank with excuses for his niece.

“Did you have a bad dream again, sweetie?” Anne asked instead, ignoring the question and hoping that she was tired enough to forget about this in the morning. Dellie nodded quietly and hugged her stuffed animal, which made Gilbert move to make space between him and Anne. Dellie climbed up the bed and laid down between the two, almost instantly falling asleep again. 

Bash and Mary returned to a dark and quiet house, stumbled drunkenly up the stairs and into their daughter’s room to check on her. Bash let out a scream when he saw that she wasn’t in her bed while Mary, being the point of reason even when she wasn’t sober, went straight to the other side of the hallway. When she opened the door she saw three figures sleeping peacefully in the dark, being lit up by a muted TV playing friends. Delphine, in the middle, was snoring with her uncle's arm around her, whose hand connected with the hand of the redhead on the other side of their daughter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know how long you like chapters to be, I personally like them around 3 000 words long but I have no idea what most prefer. 
> 
> Stay safem, wash your hands and have a good weekend *read the last part in Gilbert's voice from season one* :)


	6. Married

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert is not subtle and Dellie has important things to tell them at Blythe-Lacroix-Cuthbert Sunday dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this chapter is based on ideas from Hikari89. 
> 
> I am truly sorry for the delay of this chapter.

Anne left the Blythe-Lacroix homestead early that Sunday morning, in order to help Matthew with farm chores. She had been woken up by Delphine rolling over her and settling on her stomach at six am but decided to stay in bed for a while, enjoying cuddling with her favourite three year old and watching her boyfriend’s peaceful face as he slept. Half an hour later she got up, making sure both the child and Gilbert were still asleep when she left the room and closed the door behind her. Being comfortable in the house, she first went to check on Bash and Mary since she had fallen asleep before she heard them come home the night before. 

Bash was lying on top of the bedcovers with his clothes on, a rubbish bin next to him, and Mary was peacefully snoring on the other side of the bed, underneath layers of blankets. Anne smiled at the sight, first because she knew this could be used as leverage against Bash next time he teased her and then again when she thought about it going down the stairs. _I hope that’s what my future looks like, I want what they have._ Feeling bad for the adults about possibly needing to eat Gilbert’s cooking, she went to the kitchen and prepared a batch of pancake batter and put it in the fridge. The only thing Gilbert had to do when he woke up was to fry them, even he couldn’t fail doing that. _Right?_ She headed to the door and quickly walked over to Green Gables, already seeing Matthew outside of the barn. 

Gilbert woke up almost two hours later and although he knew that Anne wouldn’t be there when he opened his eyes, he couldn’t help but feeling disappointed when he saw that her side of the bed was empty. She had told him about the farm chores that needed to be done the night before, but he still felt upset knowing that they had just made up and couldn’t enjoy that. Gilbert also, selfishly, wanted her to have breakfast with his family to feel the same way he did when he saw them together at his hockey game. That feeling disappeared when Dellie started stirring next to him, talking incoherently about a dream she had starring himself and the famous redhead. _Maybe it was good that Anne left early._

After milking Pride, cleaning the stable and feeding the chickens, it was one o’clock and Anne was done for the day. She went inside, took a shower and got ready for dinner. 

Sunday dinners had been a tradition between the Blythe-Lacroix-Cuthberts ever since Bash moved in with Gilbert. It had started as a way to help Gilbert grief his father and to make Bash feel welcomed, and it continued when Bash met Mary and eventually had Delphine. The Cuthberts didn’t have any other family either, so the tradition became an important part of everyone's week. Even though there was no main purpose to them, other than catching up and hanging out together. 

Anne used the dinners as a way to learn Mary’s recipes, Matthew used them to practise socialicing, Marilla to swoon over Delphine and Bash to tease Gilbert about Anne. Everybody won, Mary got the chance to pass her knowledge down to a loved one, Delphine received extra attention from Marilla and Matthew while Gilbert had a chance to hang out with Anne. They would take turns hosting the dinners, having them every other week at the Cuthberts and every other week at the Blythe-Lacroixs.

This week it was the Cuthberts’ turn to host, something Anne had been looking forward to because Mary had promised her they could make her famous vanilla cake together. Anne hoped Delphine hadn’t remembered what she walked in on the previous night, but was prepared to bribe her with cookies that Marilla had baked earlier that week just in case. 

The four guests came early, Bash was supposed to teach Marilla how to make his favourite Trinidadian barbecue dish and Anne and Mary needed some time to bake the cake. Gilbert brought his french homework, hoping to have time to study with Anne sometime during the evening. Delphine had gone directly towards the barn to meet Matthew and pet the animals, who she referred to as “her best friends”. Anne felt relieved over not needing to answer potential questions from the three year old, at least for a while. 

Bash and Mary greeted Anne with hugs, thanking her for preparing breakfast for them and asking how babysitting had gone. They stood around the kitchen island laughing about Delphine soaking Anne in bath water, before getting started with the food. Anne hoped the atmosphere would be the same between the two families when she and Gilbert would eventually tell them about their relationship. Bash, Marilla, Mary and herself were marinating the meat and whisking eggs with sugar, respectively, while Gilbert was sitting by the kitchen table practicing french verbs. Matthew and Delphine were talking to the goats outside, they were an unlikely duo that somehow just made sense. 

Gilbert loved watching Anne cook, and bake, and really just do anything. He wondered how a person could look so beautiful with flour on their cheek, as Anne did. When the cake was in the oven, Bash and Marilla had already gone outside to prepare the grill for the first barbecue of the season. Mary went to check on Dellie, knowing that if she left her alone with Matthew for too long the child would take advantage of his kindness and generosity. That left Gilbert, still trying to do his homework but frequently getting distracted, and Anne alone in the kitchen. 

She sat down next to him, giving his shoulder a kiss before looking down at the nearly empty piece of paper in front of him. She chuckled, _how can my nerdy boyfriend be this bad at studying?_ Before she had the chance to ask if he needed help, the alarm set for when the cake was done rang. 

Anne rose, walking over to the oven before opening it and bending down to put a skewer through the cake, careful not to burn herself. Gilbert looked up from his worksheet, smiling as he (not so subtly) looked at her butt. He loved the blue jeans she was wearing, almost as much as he loved the angle he saw them in. 

“How’s studying going?” Bash chuckled, coming into the kitchen, after standing in the door frame and witnessing the scene. 

Anne stood back up, to Gilbert's dismay, and showed the man the skewer. “How much longer should the cake bake if the skewer looks like this? Five minutes? Or is that too long? Three?” she asked, closing the oven and inspecting the batter on the stick. 

“You probably know better than I do” Bash laughed, shaking his head. “But what do you say, Blythe? You looked pretty interested in the oven.” he hinted. Blood flew to Gilbert’s face, resulting in a subtle blush on his cheeks and bright red ears. He shrugged, looking down at the paper in front of him, knowing full well that he would not be able to concentrate on french grammar while feeling this embarrassed. 

Bash quickly got something out of the fridge and left the two teenagers alone again, shooting a grin towards Gilbert before he left. 

“Did you check out my ass? In a house full of people?” Anne whisper shouted at Gilbert, when she knew his brother couldn’t hear them. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!” he whisper yelled back. 

“Now Bash and Delphine know, might as well tell everyone tonight. Has she said anything about yesterday?”

“She hasn’t, I don’t think she remembers but she said something about a dream. And we are not telling anyone tonight, we agreed to keep the secret a while longer.”

“That’s good at least … You know Marilla would probably have your head if she was the one who caught you?” Anne laughed. 

“You’re probably right, but those jeans look so good on you that I couldn’t help myself. And besides, Bash just thinks I checked you out like I did before, he doesn’t know.”

“That’s right, I forgot you used to be a creep before we got together.”

“Excuse you! I am looking _respectfully_ ” Gilbert quoted the meme laughing. 

The two families sat down at the dining room table for dinner, discussing Gilbert’s upcoming summer job at Doctor Ward’s practice. They had a nice time, mostly listening to Delphine telling them about all the animals she and Matthew interacted with before dinner. The entire story, Gilbert thought about how Dellie definitely got her storytelling skills from the redhead sitting next to him, who was paying full attention to his niece. 

“Do you know what I dreamt last night?” the three year old girl suddenly asked, not even noticing that she had barely stopped talking for the last 20 minutes. 

“Was it another dream about scary unicorns?” Mary asked caringly but with humour, used to her daughter telling them about it. 

“No, after that when I went to uncle Gilby’s room” Delphine explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Anne shot Gilbert a panicked look, still hoping Delphine didn’t remember what she walked in on. To her displeasure, Gilbert looked equally as panicked at her. 

“What did you dream, sweetheart?” Marilla asked, being surprisingly entertained by her young neighbour. Part of her was sad she didn’t have the chance to see Anne at the age Delphine was, knowing she must have been just as talkative as her, if not more. 

“I dreamt Gilby and Anne was married” Delphine answered, smiling before shoving a piece of bread in her mouth. 

Gilbert coughed, not expecting that to come out of his niece’s mouth (especially since he was used to dreaming that himself, not that Anne knew that). He quickly looked at Marilla, who was sitting opposite him, afraid she would react poorly at the idea of him and Anne being together. She didn’t. Together with Anne, she burst out in laughter. 

Bash joined their laughing fit, looking over to a blushing Gilbert. “What happened in this dream, princess?” he asked his daughter in between laughs, struggling to breathe. 

“Auntie Anne was cooking and Gilby pretended to help” Delphine explained seriously, not understanding why everyone was laughing. 

Anne, feeling calmer knowing she must have based the dream on what happened before she came into Gilbert’s room, sighed and felt comfortable to make a joke. “Then we are probably already married, that is what happens every time we take care of you together.” Marilla continued laughing.

Gilbert nudged Annes arm with his elbow, knowing it was true but didn’t appreciate her making the joke in front of their families. _Maybe keeping this a secret is for the better._ “At least I did the dishes” he tried to defend himself. 

Mary laughed at that. “So that’s why the pot wasn’t clean this morning!” 

“Hey!” Gilbert yelled in fake disturbance, feeling like the table was turning against him. “It was clean _enough._ ”

“Delphine, did anything else happen in your dream?” Matthew asked, he had been even quieter than usual and was obviously uncomfortable talking about his daughter being married when she had just turned 18. 

“They had a cat.” Delphine wasn’t interested anymore, somehow the attention had shifted from her to her uncle and aunt. 

Anne’s smile grew, “That is a sign Matthew, we need a barn cat” she smiled. Anne had been asking for a cat ever since she was adopted, but Marilla had always been against it. That was, until two months ago when she confessed that maybe a pet would be nice to have around. It was then Matthew put his foot down and said no, and had been saying no ever since. 

“Anne, you are not getting a cat” Matthew sighed, hating to say no to her but being used to it for this specific question, by now. 

“Don’t worry Anne-girl, you can get a cat when you and Blythe, here, get married” Bash teased, grinning towards the two lovebirds and nodding towards Gilbert. 

Gilbert was about to say something, opening his mouth before Anne beat him to it. “Well, _Sebastian_ , maybe I will. But you should probably tell us about your date night yesterday. You know, to prepare us for how a married couple should act” she said, smiling innocently at him. Anne was well aware that he would never tell the conservative Marilla what he and Mary spent last night doing or how he had been too drunk to get in bed properly. Gilbert looked at her surprised and proud, happy that she felt comfortable enough to tease his brother. 

“Yeah Bash, please inform us and the Cuthberts as to why I heard two very sober people come home last night, not _at all_ struggling to get up the stairs.” Gilbert said, grinning at him. Mary blushed and bit her lower lip. 

“I think we are done eating, let’s clean up!” Bash changed the subject, accepting defeat from the teenagers. 

“Don’t let Gilby do the dishes!” Delphine said loudly after Anne had cleaned the child’s face from food that had missed her mouth. Marilla laughed at that, which Gilbert took as him still being on her good side. _Thank god!_

The families hung out in the living room, playing a game of life while Delphine watched a show on Mary’s phone. Matthew ended up with the most money at the end of the game and won, as usual, while Anne sulked coming in last. They decided to end the night there, hugging goodbye in the living room. Marilla went to clean up while Anne and Matthew walked their guests to the hall.

“Are you staying here tonight or are you coming with us home?” Mary asked Gilbert as she put on her jacket. 

“I’m staying, Anne and I still have some homework to do.” Gilbert tried sounding innocent, not wanting any dirty looks from Matthew who was standing in the same room as them. 

“Yeah, you seemed pretty distracted when doing it earlier” Bash laughed, helping Delphine put on her jacket. 

“Bye, guys! See you tomorrow after school” Gilbert said, giving his niece a hug and basically pushing his brother out the door. Matthew went outside to smoke, leaving Anne and Gilbert alone in the hallway. 

“Ready to do some french homework?” Anne asked, taking his hand and leading him up the stairs. 

“Yeah, unless we can figure out something else french we could do?” Gilbert joked, earning himself a nudge on the shoulder and a head shake from his laughing girlfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I am once again sorry for the delay. 
> 
> Black lives matter.  
> Please educate yourself, this link is to a website full of information and ways you can help. https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
> 
> If you are not able to donate, please watch this video on repeat. I have it on in the background, but it is also something worthy to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM
> 
> Take care and be kind.


	7. Are you sleeping with Anne?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bash and Gilbert have a talk, Gil and Anne sneak out to the lake of shining waters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are doing well, here is my attempt to write fluff while being sad. 
> 
> Thank you for all the kudos, hits and comments, I really appreciate it. :)

Gilbert got home from school to a surprisingly quiet house, which must mean that Delphine wasn’t home. He went into the kitchen to get a snack before studying in his room, like he always did on Monday afternoons while Anne had her book club. What he wasn’t expecting was seeing Bash sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee mug in front of him, clearly waiting for Gilbert to arrive home. 

“Hey, where are Dellie and Mary?” Gilbert asked, opening the refrigerator to see if there was something in there worth eating. 

“Are you sleeping with Anne?” Bash asked seriously, ignoring Gilbert’s question. 

“What?” Gilbert answered feeling panicked, surprised over the serious tone.  _ Did he really say what I think he did?  _

“You heard me, are you two having sex?” 

“Bash…” Gilbert felt his cheeks heat up, he closed the fridge and looked down at his brother who was still sitting at the table. 

“I’m not teasing you, this time, Blythe. I’ve just noticed some things recently and I think we should talk about it.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Bash, but there is nothing you and I need to talk about.”

“If your father were alive he would be doing this, but I feel it is my responsibility now.” Bash said uncomfortably, he definitely did not want to have this conversation with his brother and that was obvious to anyone other than Gilbert. 

“If you’re going to say what I think you are, please don’t. I turn 19 in a couple of months, I am not a child.” Gilbert sighed, already tired of the conversation. 

“And I’m assuming you don’t want a child” Bash said before he got up and grabbed a packet of condoms that laid on the kitchen counter and passed it to Gilbert.

“Whatever I am, or am not, doing with Anne, or any one else for that matter, I know how to be safe.” he sighed loudly. 

“Okay, good. We still need to talk, though.”

“I really don’t see a point to doing that. Please tell me Mary doesn’t know you bought those”, he pointed to the condom box. 

“She does not, but she would want you to be safe. Both from disease and pregnancy. Is Anne on birth control?” 

“There is  _ no  _ way I’m telling you about her business.”

“So  _ you  _ know about her business?” Bash teased for the first time since Gilbert got home, trying to make him comfortable by acting more like himself and less like the poor guy's deceased dad. It did not work. 

“I thought you said no teasing?” Gilbert took a deep breath. “I don’t know what you thought, but my dad gave me  _ the talk _ before he passed and whatever you think is going on between Anne and I does not concern you.” 

“Your father might have talked to you about the practical part of sex, but we still need to discuss the feelings and emotions behind it.”

“We certainly do not.”

“Yes we do, stop acting like a child.”

“I’m leaving” Gilbert took his backpack and moved from his place in front of the fridge, heading towards the stairs and leaving the condoms behind.

“Is it just sex or are the two of you romantically involved as well? Why aren’t you admitting it when you’re clearly in love with her? Is Anne forcing you to keep quiet?” Bash called out after him. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about … and Anne would never force me to do anything.” Gilbert yelled back, over his shoulder. He had thought those same things just a couple of days ago and now they were being thrown at him again. Bash followed him to the stairs in the hall.

“Real mature, Blythe. I am being serious here, all I want is for you and Anne to be safe and happy. ”

“You are making me the opposite of happy right now!” Gilbert knew he was acting childish and that his brother meant well, but being cornered after school with a packet of condoms was not Gilbert’s preferred way to tell Bash about his relationship.

“You give me no choice but to talk to the both of you, next time she’s here.”

Gilbert stopped at the second step of the staircase and looked Bash straight in the eye. “You are not mentioning any of this to Anne! I’m serious, Bash. And no more jokes about us! I let the one from yesterday, the one about us getting a cat when we- no, if we get married, slide because I didn’t want to cause a scene. But they make both of us uncomfortable.” Gilbert had had enough. 

Bash stood there quietly, he hadn’t thought of it like that. His jokes were meant to tease them because he knew they both had a thing for the other, not to make them uncomfortable and angry. 

“Let it go and let whatever Anne and I have, whether it’s platonic, romantic or sexual, figure it out ourselves” Gilbert said and walked up the rest of the stairs, closing his bedroom door hard behind him. Bash stood still at the end of the stairs, regretting bringing it up. 

Gilbert stayed in his room, trying to study. He was still shocked that Bash chose to bring it up in that way, but he was also disappointed in himself for not expecting a reaction of some kind after Bash had caught him checking Anne out at dinner. It was difficult for Gilbert to concentrate on the equations in front of him, he never got that snack he craved and it didn’t help that he refused to go down stairs for dinner when Mary called for him. 

Somehow Gilbert had made it through the afternoon and evening without leaving his room, which was most likely the reason he was feeling a drastic need to get out of it after he heard Bash and Mary go to bed for the night. Without thinking he texted Anne. 

**Gil** \- Want to sneak out?

**Anne-girl** \- now?

**Gil** \- We could go to the lake

**Gil** \- ill bring a book and blankets. U just need to bring urself 

**Anne-girl** \- ok, give me 15 minutes. I need to make tea

**Gil** \- I love you

**Anne-girl** \- you just love acting like a romantic boyfriend

**Gil** \- Can you blame me

**Anne-girl** \- see you soon, dork

They met up outside of Green Gables, 18 minutes later. It was late and despite the fact that spring had led to more hours of seeing the sun, it was dark and cold out. The smell of blooming blossoms was almost overpowering and Anne loved it. Hand in hand, she and Gilbert walked towards the lake of shining waters, him with two blankets and a worn out book in the other and her with a backpack containing a thermos with tea and biscuits.

Gilbert laid down one of the blankets he had taken from his room before climbing out of the window to make sure he didn’t accidentally run into anyone in his kitchen, and they sat down. They settled on the bridge, cuddling up under the other blanket he had brought. Anne noticed that he was off and tried to take his mind off whatever was bothering him by talking about something Diana had done in school, until he was ready to open up. He thought it was best to tell Anne about his conversation with Bash as soon as possible, which unfortunately led to him interrupting her. 

“Bash asked me if we were sleeping together” he said quietly, shocking Anne. 

“He what?” she screamed a little too loud for that time of night, but didn’t seem to care about the interruption. 

“He asked me if we were having sex, if we were using protection and if you were on birth control ... and he tried to give me  _ the talk _ .” Gilbert explained and quickly realised that  _ that  _ was not what she wanted to know. 

“What did you say?” she whispered, nervousness clear in her voice. 

“I didn’t confirm or deny anything, I yelled and left.” he shrugged. 

“How did that even come up?”

“He was planning it, he even bought a box of condoms” Gilbert chuckled. 

“He did not!”

“I swear!”

“We are literally both adults!” Anne hysterically started to laugh. 

“I’m honestly just glad he didn’t try to tell me what goes where” Gilbert said, relieved that Anne wasn’t angry. 

They laughed it off and Anne settled in between Gilbert’s legs, her back against his chest, with the book and started reading the words of Walt Whitman out loud. In the meantime, Gilbert played with her long, red hair. Anne had taught him how to braid it two weeks prior and he was practising, careful not to pull the hair too hard and accidentally hurting her. 

“You know …” Anne thought out loud suddenly, pausing her reading. Gilbert hummed in response and bent his head to lay a kiss on her shoulder

“If you want to, we could maybe get Bash back for getting involved in our business” Anne said and despite not being able to see her face, Gilbert knew she was smirking. 

“You mean like a prank?”

“Yeah, but it would most likely end in us telling him that we are together, you know, romantically.” Anne bit her lip, a tic she got when she was nervous. In that moment she decided that she would be okay with telling Gilbert’s family about them, she felt ready. 

“Would that be a bad thing?”

“I don’t think so, he basically knows now. We just haven’t confirmed it yet...”

“It would be fun to get him back for all the years of teasing.” Gilbert laughed and snaked his arms around Anne, squeezing her lightly before letting go again. He thought it was nice to hear her confirm, once again, that his thoughts about her being ashamed of him were false.

“But we need to think of something good.”

“Like the equivalent of buying a 19 year old condoms and trying to give him the talk?”

Anne turned to look at him, “You’re still 18 for a couple more months, Gil.”

“You get my point!” he chuckled and kissed the crown of her head. Anne hummed, turned back around and continued to read out loud from the book, Gilbert braiding her hair for the third time and still not quite getting it right. 

After a while they switched positions, Gilbert took over the reading, his head in Anne’s lap while she combed through his dark curls and sipped on the tea that had gotten cold at that point. It had gotten impossibly darker and the only light they had came from the streetlights a couple of meters away. They could hear the fish swimming in the lake and the mosquitoes doing their best to bite them. The scent from flowers and trees blooming felt stronger as the wind flew over them and Anne felt content, dipping her finger deeper into her boyfriends curls. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing another fic and therefore delayed the update of this one, I'm sorry. 
> 
> Also, should I make a twitter account and join stantwitter? 
> 
> Please educate yourself and watch 13th on Netflix, if you have time to read this you have time to learn about the horrible way people are being treated in this world.


	8. Babe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne gets caught and for once, she is the one getting embarrassed. Gilbert and Anne tell the first person about their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all doing well. Here's a reminder to sign petitions about black lives matter, police brutality in the US, Canada, India and other countries as well as petitions for the crisis in Yemen, Palestine and other things happening in the world. If you have the time, please inform me about other issues in the world and what I can do to help.

“I can't believe they’re acting like this, I’m basically an adult and I’m not even allowed to decide what  _ I _ want for  _ my  _ future!” Diana ranted over the phone, the sound filling Anne’s room, originating from the speaker of her phone. 

“It’s  _ your  _ future not theirs!” Anne passionately yelled back, sitting on her bed and painting her toenails a pretty yellow colour with her mobile in front of her. 

“And they won’t even compromise! This is so unfair, Anne!” Diana continued. Anne could hear her friend walking back and forth in her large room.

“I know it is! Have you tried talking to aunt Jo? She might be helpful, or at least supportive of your dreams” Anne suggested. She knew that Diana didn’t really want advice, just someone to talk to, but couldn’t help herself from suggesting it. 

“I haven’t. But I don’t want her charity. I want my idiot parents to accept me!”

“I know, sweetie...”

“You're right, though. Support from a family member my parents respect couldn't hurt” Diana sighed. 

“Maybe she could talk some sense into them” Anne laughed quietly, after painting the final stroke on her pinky toe’s nail. 

“That is a very hard thing to do, trust m-”

There was a knock on Anne’s bedroom door and before she had a chance to ask who it was, Gilbert opened it and came inside. “Hey, babe, Marilla let me in! I got the stuff we need for the prank.”

“Who was that?” Diana asked shocked. “Was that Gilbert?”

Anne gave him a panicked look and threw a pillow in his direction with the hand that wasn’t holding the nailpolish brush, which resulted in it missing him. 

“Fuck” Anne heared Gilbert whisper under his breath, understanding she was on speaker phone with Diana. 

“Yeah, it is. Gil, say hi to Diana!” Anne tried to sound casual but was betrayed by her extra high voice. 

“Heeey, Di.”

“Did he just call you babe, Anne? Why did he call you  _ babe _ ?” Diana asked, ignoring Gilbert. 

“He’s just joking around, you know the whole ‘ _ honey, I’m home _ ’ thing that isn’t very funny but still considered a joke” Anne said, it being the best thing she could come up with on the spot with Gilbert nervously standing beside her. 

“Eeh, okay..” Diana answered, not at all sounding convinced. 

“Di, are you okay?” Anne asked, subtly referencing what they had been talking about before the interruption. “Can I call you back in 10?” 

“Sure, Anne.”

“Please don’t kill your parents before that, bye” she said and hung up the phone before Diana had a chance to say anything else. 

Anne took a deep breath and fell backwards on the bed, the nailpolish brush still in her hand. “Are you fucking kidding me, Gilbert?”

“I’m sorry, Marilla said you were up here reading!” he exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender. 

“Well, you just called me  _ babe  _ in front of Diana, so if she tells Cole everyone will know!”

“Our plan is really going like shit, huh?” he joined her on the bed and sighed loudly. 

“Did you really get what we need for the prank?” Anne changed the subject, knowing it wasn’t worth talking about what already happened.

“Yeah, Bash is going to flip. Mary will probably murder me, it’ll be fun” Gilbert laughed. 

“We’re not  _ too  _ crazy right?”

“He bought me condoms, trust me, this is the perfect level of craziness.”

The next day in the cafeteria, the girls and Cole were eating lunch by themselves and discussing the test they had just had in English. Anne nodded along with her friends when they complained about how difficult it was, even though she knew she could have passed it in her sleep. She had just taken a bite from her apple when Diana decided to change the subject. 

“So, are you and Gilbert together?” she asked in front of everyone and looked Anne in the eyes. 

“What?” Anne said, her mouth full of apples. 

“I heard him call you babe. He never calls anyone babe. I distinctly remember him telling us he hated pet names, last year” Diana argued. 

“It’s true, he said that he would throw up if he heard Moody call me ‘baby’ one more time” Ruby shared with the group, and then focused on what was important. “Wait, he called you  _ babe _ ?”

“You are definitely sleeping together” Cole laughed, looking at Anne with a cheeky expression. 

“I knew you were getting some, I just figured you took the advice to go after Roy” Tillie chimed in, making Ruby smile. Whereas Cole and Diana were strictly team Gilbert, Tillie and Ruby were team any-cute-boy-available for Anne. Josie was surprisingly quiet, which was not a regular occurrence when they were gossiping, especially about one of their friends’ love life.

“Just like I told Diana, Gil was joking around” Anne explained, trying to keep a straight face. 

“Gilbert doesn’t really seem like the kind of person to call a friend ‘babe’, Anne.” Diana pointed out. She also thought that it had sounded way too casual for Gilbert to mean it as a joke, but she wouldn’t say that in front of everyone. 

“I think it’s cuter when he calls you ‘Anne-girl’, it sounds so romantic” Ruby said, batting her long eyelashes. 

“That’s platonic. So was babe” Anne defended herself and Gilbert. Even if he meant “babe” romantically, he had called her Anne-girl since before they had gotten together. There was nothing more behind that nickname.  _ Right? _

“I don’t see what the big deal is. Just because he called her that doesn’t mean they’re romantically involved” Josie spoke up for the first time, sounding annoyed at her friends. 

“Thank you, Josie!” Anne exclaimed. 

“I’m just saying, if you two aren’t hooking up now, you will be soon” Cole said before having a sip from his soft drink. 

“That sounds like a threat, hun” Diana laughed. 

“Aha! You just called him ‘hun’” Anne stood up from the chair she was sitting on and pointed at her best friend. 

“Well, we are not attracted to each other and Diana isn’t not-so-secretly in love with me. It’s not the same” Cole argued, earning himself an eye roll from Anne. 

“It kind of is though...” Ruby whispered, looking like she was actually comparing the two scenarios in her head. 

“Shut up Ruby, we are voting for Shirbert here!” Tillie hit her arm and by that unofficially switched from team any-cute-boy-available to team Gilbert. 

After listening to Diana pulling her away from their friends to tell her that “you know you could just confess to us that there is something between you two” and answering that it wasn’t that simple, Anne had spent the day solely focusing on her schoolwork and limiting her social interactions. If her friends knew something was happening between her and Gilbert, and they were aware that she did not want to talk about it, why were they still continuing with their hints and theories? Anne had just become comfortable with the thought of telling Gilbert’s family (and hopefully giving Bash a heart attack) and she wanted to take her time processing everything by not telling everyone at the same time. 

She also knew that Diana would be hurt if she told her that she had been in a secret relationship with Gilbert for over two months. It’s not like Diana would care about the Gilbert or relationship part of it, although she probably would ask if Gilbert was as good of a kisser as Ruby had thought when they were younger. No, Diana would most likely be hurt by the fact that Anne kept it a secret. Anne always told Diana everything and by not telling her a big thing like this, she was afraid that her bosom friend would think that she didn’t trust her, which wasn’t the case  _ at all _ . For Anne, the worst part was that she wouldn’t even be able to genuinely apologize to Diana for not telling her about it, because she wasn’t sorry she had kept the relationship secret. Of course, she would be sorry for hurting Diana since that wasn’t her intention. However, she loved the months she and Gilbert managed to keep their secret and wouldn’t take them back for the world. 

Gilbert and Jerry were already sitting in the front of the car laughing when Anne came out to the parking lot. She sat down in the back and gave them both a stiff smile before leaning back on the seat and closing her eyes for a second. She was exhausted from the day, or really the afternoon, she had had.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jerry asked worriedly, looking back at her. She could see Gilbert looking concerned through the back view mirror. 

Anne nodded, which both of the guys could see through, but Gilbert still put the car in reverse and drove away from the school.

“So what were you guys talking about before I ruined the mood?” Anne asked after five minutes, feeling better from the emotionally draining afternoon by just sitting in silence a couple of minutes. 

“You didn’t ruin the mood, Anne-girl” Gilbert tried to meet her eyes in the mirror, at the same time as he was looking at the road in front of him.

“I was telling him about what I saw Tillie and Paul do” Jerry laughed a second later, looking back at Anne. 

“Do I even want to know?” she chuckled. 

“Definitely not” Gilbert answered with a smile. 

A few more minutes of silence fell upon them and Anne was still thinking about the conversation from lunch.  _ Would it be so bad if our friends knew? _ That thought led her to an idea that she didn’t even think twice about before asking. “Hey, Gil. Do you mind if we tell Jerry  _ right now _ ?” 

“Huh?” Gilbert asked, confused after his own thoughts had been interrupted. 

“Tell me what?” Jerry asked, intrigued. 

Anne raised her eyebrows to communicate to Gilbert what she meant, and it worked because Gilbert himself raised his eyebrows, in surprise, and asked a shocked “really?”

“Yeah” Anne said weakly, almost starting to regret it.  _ Is Gilbert having second doubts about our relationship? Shit, is this what I had made him feel all that time? _

“If you're sure, then yeah” he said, smiling and relieving Anne’s anxiety. 

“Jerry, my beloved child” Anne started dramatically to up the mood in the car. It earned her a snort from both of the guys in the front and Jerry looked over his shoulder at her, again.

“Yes, mother” he played along. 

“We just wanted to officially inform you that Gilbert and I are, in fact, a couple” Anne said in a mock dramatic tone. She could see Gilbert smiling in the driver's seat, the apples of his cheeks slightly tinted pink. 

“As in boyfriend-girlfriend” Gilbert clarified, grinning. 

Jerry laughed, “thank you for telling me, but you’re aware that I’ve known a while, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why I wanted you to be the first one we told, you know,  _ officially _ . It’s been going on for two months” Anne said, also blushing. 

“I would have guessed longer” Jerry teased and the three of them laughed. 

“We’re still not planning on telling everyone yet, so please keep your cute little mouth shut for a while” Anne smiled and reached out to touch his shoulder. 

“Of course” Jerry said, still laughing. 

“Oh my god, now I can  _ finally  _ tell you about the prank we are doing on Bash tomorrow night” Gilbert started excitedly. 

“You’re going to love it” Anne said and listened to Gilbert going on about how they were going to pull it off. Jerry laughed and confirmed that it was, in fact, a funny prank but thought that it would end in their heads being chopped off by Mary, which Anne agreed with. She later caught Gilbert’s eye in the mirror and smiled at how proud he looked, they had finally told someone about them and it went well.  _ Maybe letting the others know wont me so bad? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I joined twitter, you can find me at @ lolleea if you want to. I want friends :)
> 
> Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for a prank. I have the outline for the coming chapters but I'm open for ideas. Thank you for reading. x


	9. Windows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gilbert are stupid teenagers, Bash and Anne have a conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you forget about this fic? Because I wouldn't blame you if you did. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me if you're still here :)

An hour had passed since Anne and Gilbert  _ finally  _ got a crying and sleepy Dellie to fall asleep in her room, her parents out on another date night, much to their daughter’s dismay. Her two favourite babysitters had tried to get her to fall asleep for 45 minutes, learning that the obstinate age was a lot tougher than the two of them had previously thought. They had since retreated back down to the kitchen, nervously awaiting Bash and Mary’s arrival home. The plan they had been hatching was simple, they were going to pretend that Anne was pregnant and watch Bash freak out, as payback for teasing them all of those years. The two goody two-shoes, however, were struggling with trying to pull it off. Sure, they could keep  _ some  _ secrets from their families and didn’t tell them the  _ whole  _ truth about certain things, but it was something else entirely to lie to their faces for non necessary purposes. 

It had been Gilbert’s idea to open the bottle of rum that Bash had gifted him after his last trip to Trinidad to visit his mum. It was meant to calm their nerves and have something to do while they waited for the couple. Already drinking coke, they couldn’t see why they shouldn’t spice up their soda a little. It was Friday, after all. But, what was meant as something to take the edge off by having a single drink resulted in the two of them finishing off the majority of the bottle, while playing a drunken game of scrabble at the kitchen table. 

Mary was surprised when she came into the house first, seeing the two teenagers laughing at some word Gilbert had spelled on the board, a positive pregnancy test and an almost empty liquor bottle next to them. She cleared her throat loudly, to get their attention while feeling  _ way  _ too tired to deal with what was infront of her. “What’s going on here?” she asked them in that motherly way that they both wished they could have experienced as children. 

“We’re playing scrabble, do you want to join us?” Anne answered happily, looking down at her tiles and trying to form a word. 

“I didn’t know Anne was coming over” Bash said happily as he walked through the door, seeing her shoes beside it. 

“Shhhh, the baby is sleeping” Gilbert whispered, unapproving of Bash using his outside voice in the house that late at night. 

“Yes, the baby is  _ sleepiiing _ ” Anne laughed quietly, parroting her boyfriend. 

Bash, who was very confused about what was so funny, recognised the rum bottle and put the pieces together.  _ Of course Blythe would use the rum I gave him to get drunk with his Anne.  _ “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the pregnancy test. 

“Uuh, that’s a funny story, actually. Tell them, Gil” Anne laughed and reached over the table to nudge Gilbert’s arm enthusiastically with hers. 

“We were kind of planning on pranking you, to say that Anne is pregnant” Gilbert chuckled, Anne not paying attention to them anymore and instead being completely focused on the tiles she was placing on the board 

“That isn’t funny, Gilbert” Mary informed, giving both of them disappointed looks. “You shouldn’t joke about that.”

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow, when you’ve slept that”, Bash gestured to the bottle, “off. Go upstairs, Blythe” he said shortly, sounding as exhausted as he was. All he wanted was to come home to a quiet house and spend even more quality time with his amazing wife. Taking care of two drunk teenagers trying to pull a prank was at the bottom of his wish list. 

Gilbert rolled his eyes to show his brother his annoyance, but was actually feeling tired and therefore did as he was told. He reached for Anne’s hand to help her up from the chair and started leading them towards the hallway. 

“No, Anne. You're going home” Bash said strictly, surprising everyone in the room with how much he sounded like a parent to the two kids. 

“No, I want to stay here” Anne argued childishly and stumbled, with Gilbert’s help, to the staircase. 

“Come on, I’m walking you home.” Bash offered, following them. 

“Just let her stay, Bash, you know that we’re together. It’s no big deal. We’re sorry, just let us go to bed” Gilbert slurred. 

“Oh yeah, we forgot to officially mention it but we’re together. You know, as in a  _ relationship _ ” Anne clarified, whispering the last word to signify that she was letting them in on a secret. “Did you know that Mary? That Gilbert is my  _ boyfriend _ .”

“I did not, although I did have my suspicions. Congratulations, but you still need to go home, Anne.”

“But I really want to stay here with Gilbert!” Anne pouted, not aware she was starting to sound as childish as Delphine. 

“No, you both were drinking while babysitting and planning on pulling a very irresponsible prank. I’m taking Anne home” Bash said, having enough and just wanting to go to sleep at that point. 

“I’m sorry, Sebastian and Mary, I really am. It will never happen again. Can you please let me stay here with Gil?” Anne asked kindly, trying to use her big blue puppy dog eyes to get them to agree while they were helping her put on her converse. It didn’t work, next thing Anne knew she was walking with Bash across the lawn, leaning her weight against him as he walked with his arm around her. “I really am sorry, I didn’t mean for all of this to happen” she said again, guilt written all over her face. 

“I know, Anne. We can talk about it tomorrow” he sighed, rubbing her shoulder with his hand as they walked over the patch of grass that connected their two houses. 

“Are parents allowed to ground their kids even if they’re legally adults? If so, Matthew and Marilla will probably ground me for at least five years when they wake up to see that I got so drunk, you need to help me walk 20 meters back to my house.”

Bash smiled, reminding Anne about the Bash she was used to seeing “I won’t snitch on you if you can make it up to your room safely.” 

“Wait, really?” Anne asked, shocked. _ Is he letting me off the hook? _

“There’s a catch though.”

“What is it? I’ll do anything, Bash. Babysit while sober, cook for you guys, clean the house, anything!”

“Be careful with Gilbert’s heart, okay? He really loves you, you know.”

Anne blushed, grinning widely “I really love him too, it’s sweet of you to care for him as much as you do.”

“Don’t you dare tell him, I’ll go straight to Marilla.” Bash threatened and Anne couldn’t tell if he was joking or being serious. 

“I won't!” she promised as they walked up the steps of her porch, distancing herself from the stable arms that she leaned on. “Thank you for helping me home, don’t punish Gilbert without me” she smiled.

“Good night, Anne. Sleep well!”

“You too, and once again, I’m sorry. Please tell Mary I’m sorry, too.”

“I will.”

Anne opened the door and was on her way in when she stopped and looked back at the kind man she was lucky enough to not only call a neighbour, but also family. “Oh, and Bash?”

He hummed, already mentally preparing for bed. 

“I promise to be careful with Gilbert’s heart” she said, meaning it and walking into the house, closing the front door behind her before he had the chance to answer. 

Anne was turning in bed, her uncomfortable sweatpants itching her shin under the cover, making her unable to fall asleep. Not that she tried that hard, it had been ten minutes since she quietly succeeded to climb the stairs and get into her room after leaving Bash on her porch. She missed Gilbert, even though she had just spent her entire evening with him she craved more. The multiple texts she had sent, telling him to come over so that they could cuddle and fall asleep next to each other, hadn’t received a single reply. She assumed he was either being yelled at by Mary for their irresponsible behavior, or that he had already fallen asleep.  _ He had been tired when we were waiting up for his family, maybe he went straight to bed? _

So Anne, being the impatient person that she was, decided to do the only logical thing she could think of, which obviously was to get out of her bed and sneak back down stairs and out of Green gables. She had forced herself to drink a large glass of water when she arrived home and the minutes laying in her bed must have made a difference, or she had miraculously sobered up, because she walked across the land to the Blythe-Lacroix house without trouble this time. 

Being an experienced tree climber and intoxicated enough to not think of the dangerous consequences, Anne then climbed up the roof of Gilbert’s porch. Thankfully, it hadn’t been raining and therefore the roof was dry as a bone, Anne didn’t know what her next move would have been if it had been too slippery for her to climb. When she got up on the small, metal roof, she crawled over to the window she knew was Gilbert’s, having spent hours looking out from it instead of into her book when they were studying together. It was as dark outside as it was inside and she couldn’t tell if he was laying in bed or not, with the only light coming from the beside the front door, under her. With nothing to lose, she knocked softly, hopefully loud enough to wake him up and get his attention but not rough enough to make anyone else notice. When that didn’t work, she knocked a little harder, holding the flashlight from her phone against the window to try to gain his attention. That didn’t work either.  _ Maybe he’s not even in bed _ . The third time, however, must be a charm because when Anne knocked a little harder once again, she could see a body stir in the queen size bed. 

Anne didn’t know how Gilbert would react, when they got together they had agreed that they wouldn’t need to sneak around at home. And yet, somehow she had gotten herself into a situation where she was sitting outside his second floor window trying to wake him up so that he could let her in. After seeing herself as an independent person for 18 years, promising to herself never to go out of her way just to get a guy’s attention, she was sitting outside someone's window in sweatpants and a t-shirt begging to be let in. She had sworn never to rely on any man other than Matthew, but the second she had more than two drinks she was literally climbing up a house just to fall asleep next to her boyfriend. It should have scared her how she acted so unlike the person she thought she had been all of those years, but nothing felt less scary than being around Gilbert.

“Anne?” Gilbert asked confused, rubbing his eyes on his way to the window where he could spot her red hair. He had fallen asleep the moment his head touched his pillow, Mary didn’t have a chance to lecture him before he was gone, snoring quietly with his mouth open while still wearing his jeans. He opened the old window confused, not sure if he was still dreaming. “What are you doing here? How did you even-”

“Just let me in before this old roof breaks” Anne interrupted, accepting Gilbert's hand when he moved out of the way for her to jump into the room. It didn’t go as smoothly as they hoped, and Anne fell face first down onto Gilbert’s floor. 

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, helping her up. 

“I’m fine, do you think Bash and Mary heard that?”

Gilbert took a moment to listen, “Probably, but Delphine isn’t crying so at least you didn’t wake her. Are you sure you’re okay? That looked like it hurt.”

“Are they going to kick me out again? Were they really mad?” Anne asked, making her way to the bed and ignoring his question. 

“Mary did the whole _ ‘disappointed, not mad’ _ thing when I went upstairs after you and Bash left and I feel really bad for letting them down, but I fell asleep right after so I don't know.”

“I feel bad too, should I just leave again? I don’t want them to hate me even more.”

“We all love you, Anne, but why are you here?” Gilbert sighed, joining her in sitting on his bed. 

“I just missed you, and I feel bad for betraying Bash and Mary’s trust and I just didn’t want to fall asleep without you next to me” she sniffled. 

Gilbert knew what Anne was like when she had been drinking, she always started off super confident, dancing like nobody was watching, being funny enough to host one of those netflix comedy specials the two of them loved to watch or standing up to Bash when he had told her to go home. But once it wore off and the tiredness started taking over, she became more vulnerable. Gilbert remembers the nights he spent consoling a drunken Anne in his bed before they were a couple, hating every second new tears were produced and fell down her cheeks, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop them. He was well aware she didn’t enjoy sleeping alone when she was feeling that way and since he, more often than not, was in a cuddling mood after he had been drinking as well, it was like a match made in heaven. But never had he thought that her need for comfort and company would be so high that she would sneak out of her house and climb up his just to get through his window and into his room. He felt like a bad boyfriend for not thinking about it when she left with Bash, the only things on his mind being regret and the need to sleep. “Anne” he said quietly, hugging her sideways. 

“I should go, I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”

“No, don’t leave. Please stay.”

“But they know I’m here now, Gil.”

“We’ll just go to sleep and handle the consequences tomorrow. I’m so tired, please?”

“But I want them to like me now that they know we’re together. They’re gonna think I’m a bad influence on you or something.”

“Please! Bash is going to blame me for it, they’ll still love you. Besides, it was my idea to open that bottle.” 

“Should we at least talk to them?” 

“No, sleep!” Gilbert pulled her into a lying position on the bed when his phone lit up from his nightstand. 

**Bash:** We know Anne sneaked through your window. 

**Mary:** Go to sleep, leave your door open

Gilbert showed her the messages, smiling at how he had the best family he could imagine. “See, lets go to sleep.”

Anne got under the covers and felt the comfortable warmth of where Gilbert's body had laid just a couple minutes earlier, while he got up to open the bedroom door, afraid of getting into more trouble with his brother and sister inlaw. He then crawled in next to Anne, cuddling up to her side, being met by a kiss on his jaw. 

“I love you, thank you for letting me stay” she whispered while snuggling into the crook of his neck. 

“Love you too, goodnight, Anne” he said back, tightening his grip around her and thinking about how thankful he is that she managed to climb up to his window without getting hurt. No one other than his Anne-girl could do that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, remember to drink water and to take care of yourself.

**Author's Note:**

> * European football, American soccer. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you did not hate it. Please let me know if you want me to continue and what you think should happen. I have another chapter ready but I'm very willing to change. Also, this was not read by anyone else before posting so excuse the mistakes, I don't have any friends in the fandom so please befriend me if you'd like. Stay safe :)


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